Uphill battle to preserve Niagara heritage
I have become the family genealogist in recent years, and this has led me to some new considerations.
In genealogy people often refer to a wall, or brick wall, which is simply when you are stuck and your ancestors trail runs cold. For me, this happened in a little place called Leighton Buzzard in the
county of Bedfordshire in England.
I started researching the town to see if I could pick up the trail of my ancestors, and when I started looking at pictures and reading I was amazed. I found that the town square was built in the 14th century, and the church most likely frequented by my family is more than 1,000 years old. They say that Leighton Buzzard is an ancient town, and this made me wonder how the architecture, streetscapes, artifacts, etc., had escaped the ravages of wars and environmental monsters such as acid rain. But what really amazes me is how it could possibly escape the most insidious of all it’s enemies — progress.
What could possibly connect Leighton Buzzard with Niagara that would make this opinion piece a valid ‘Niagara Voices’ article? Back here in Niagara I sit on the heritage committee for the Town of Lincoln, and this has really opened my eyes to the lack of protection that exists for some of our most cherished buildings and neighbourhoods.
The onus of protecting buildings, streetscapes or other items of significant cultural or historical value is either on the owner, or the areas local heritage committee. It can be a long arduous process for volunteers to inventory properties and most municipalities do not have the funds to hire a consultant to do the work, so if a property owner does not see the value and the municipality has not yet managed to designate or inventory a property because of the financial or volunteer limitations then it may slip through the cracks. If we set Niagara-on-the-Lake aside as an anomaly, and look at Niagara as a whole, we will never have ancient towns here. We are always too eager to move ahead at the expense of our history.
I must admit that there are some developers that are quite adept at brownfield development, and adaptive reuse of old buildings — The Keg and Johnny Rocco’s buildings in Merritton are good examples and should be commended for their efforts in preservation. But the sad reality is that these types of developers are few and far between. If we add to that land use restrictions such as the greenbelt coupled with a building code that allows demolition permits to be issued without proposed land use for commercial spaces, we end up with situations like the recent Bank of Montreal building at Yonge Street and Roselawn Avenue in Toronto.
Heritage committees really have no teeth, as they are just advisory. Their role is to advise their respective municipalities on the merit of designating properties under the Ontario Heritage Act.
This requires volunteers or consultants to do very timeconsuming and or costly research in assessing the property to see if it meets the requirements of the act. During the process the potential always exists that a building could be razed.
Another aggravating factor in the process is that the municipality has only 30 days to answer a building owner’s request for a demolition permit if the building is on the inventory list for potential designation, and 90 days for a property that is designated. If the municipality doesn’t answer within these timeframes then it is obligated to give the permit.
Typically a developer would want to demolish as they see more money in building new than preserving, and this is why I believe we will never have any ancient towns, even the anomaly Niagara-on-the-Lake is ever so slowly losing its old town feel as development sprawls around it.
Over the years I have watched in horror as a significant amount of landmark buildings have fallen in one way or another. In downtown St. Catharines the Russel Hotel and the Grand Opera House are two that come to mind. They may not have been the most architecturally grand, or significant examples around, but they certainly played a big role in making the city what it is.
Perhaps one solution could be amending the building code to automatically protect a building of a certain age from a demolition permit being issued until a proper review can be conducted. Unfortunately, this would have no impact on mysterious fires, and this is why I believe we need a shift in how we see our communities.
Until we collectively as a community see the value in our heritage we will be constantly fighting an uphill battle. — Jonathan Webb is a St. Catharines native and graduate of Denis Morris High School. He lives in Beamsville where he operates his own business and is active in the community as a cub scout leader, organizer of waterway cleanups at Jordan Harbour and serves as president of the Niagara West Federal Liberal Association. He can be reached at jonathanpaulwebb@gmail.com.