Kitchener moves to protect more heritage buildings

KITCHENER — The City of Kitchener is moving to protect more heritage buildings by getting them designated.

The city has designated few properties over the past several years, as the city’s two heritage employees concentrated their efforts on two other big projects: a review of more than 1,000 properties to determine which should be listed on the city’s heritage register, and an inventory of Kitchener’s cultural heritage landscapes.

That work meant that little attention has been paid in the past eight years to designating properties, which gives them a much greater heritage protection, said Leon Bensason, the city’s co-ordinator of cultural heritage planning.

“We haven’t been concentrating as much on designation,” he said. “We’re lagging behind other … municipalities on a per-capita basis.”

So in recent months the volunteers on Heritage Kitchener, the heritage advisory committee, meticulously looked at all 231 properties on the register to see which ones the committee should prioritize for designation.

Priority went to properties

most at risk: a property that was vacant, where there was a proposal to demolish or redevelop it, in an area ripe for redevelopment such as those closest to the LRT, in poor condition or vacant.

The process also included “quick wins,” where the owner might have already indicated a willingness to designate.

That led to a short list of 13 properties considered top candidates for designation, Bensason said. The heritage committee already moved to designate one of those, the vacant Legion hall at 48 Ontario St., which is owned by the city.

Heritage Kitchener is also reaching out to all of the owners of private properties listed on the city’s heritage register to attend a Nov. 10 meeting to explain the benefits of designation, both for the community and the property owner, in the hopes of encouraging some to consider designation.

“There are opportunities that some property owners might be interested in — access to grants, not only at the city level, but also through the Waterloo Regional Heritage Foundation,” Bensason said.

The meeting aims to clarify the heritage process, the difference between listing and designation, and dispel myths. Many owners believe designation means owners will be mired in bureaucracy before being able to make any changes to their homes.

“We process over 30 heritage permits a year,” Bensason said. “It’s not an onerous process. We approve I would say 90 per cent of all the heritage applications that come through.”