Protecting our shared heritage
Region of Waterloo moves to create inventory, safeguard landscapes
WATERLOO REGION — Scattered throughout Waterloo Region are dozens of buildings, bridges, schools and homes that tell important parts of the story of how this community grew and evolved.
The Region of Waterloo is drawing up guidelines to help protect that heritage in two ways: with an inventory of the most important heritage sites so they’re flagged in future planning; and by helping preserve larger cultural heritage landscapes, where the buildings, land, trees and streets together create distinctive spaces.
The policies are meant to protect places that illustrate the area’s history, such as government buildings, schools and religious institutions, industrial buildings as well as places associated with key events or people.
“It’s about storytelling, a sense of place, belonging and authenticity,” said Kate Hagerman, supervisor of cultural heritage at the Region of Waterloo. “Each community has these heritage resources that organically evolve over time, that make it the place that it is today. Through careful plan-
ning and development you can build on that authenticity, or you can lose it.”
Regional heritage staff are working on the list of regionally significant heritage sites, and will consult all property owners before the list comes to regional council.
Possible candidates include a wide variety of heritage buildings and places, from the Freeport and West Montrose bridges, Castle Kilbride in Baden, Waterloo Park, the old Huron Road, the Galt post office or Indigenous sites in Kitchener’s Huron Natural Area.
The initial list might include roughly 60 of the most significant heritage sites in the region, Hagerman said. A site must meet at least four of 10 criteria — things like whether it’s a rare or an early example of something, it contributes to the region’s character or development, or is associated with a key person or event.
The inventory will also provide a handy resource for people to discover some of the region’s important heritage sites, including less well-known ones, Hagerman said.
The second set of guidelines provides a framework for cities and townships to identify and protect cultural heritage landscapes, such as the historic mill village of Greenfield just west of Ayr. The site includes not only the four-storey 1865 limestone mill, but also the mill sluice gates, dam and mill race, as well as the mill founder’s home and several mill worker cottages.
The guidelines, which have been used in draft form for a couple of years, have been helpful for townships that don’t have the resources for intensive heritage studies, said Geoff Vander-Baaren, director of planning for Wellesley Township. “They provide the framework: what type of things should we be looking at, what should we be excluding in a cultural heritage landscape.”
The region’s cities find the guidelines helpful, too, said Michelle Lee, heritage planner at the City of Waterloo, which is working on a study of potential heritage landscapes in the city. “They have proven to be very useful, and actually form a very integral part of our cultural heritage landscape study.”
Both sets of guidelines aren’t meant to add an extra layer of bureaucracy, but to clarify what’s expected of anyone who wants to develop in and near heritage sites, Hagerman said. But there’s the potential for a bit more delay, at least with the regionally significant sites, since the region would be commenting — in addition to the local city or township — on any development proposals.
If regional council approves the guidelines, they’ll form part of the region’s Official Plan. Any proposed development on or near a regionally significant heritage site would be flagged. The developer would need to submit a heritage impact study on how to address potential negative effects on the heritage site, such as blocking heritage views, creating noise or traffic, altering the look of a heritage building, or casting shadows.
Property owners for all candidate sites for the regional heritage inventory will be contacted, and the region will also hold a formal public meeting, likely later this year. The draft policies are available on the region’s heritage web page. People can email comments to the region by early February.