Heritage committee rejects plan to demolish homes
Developer wanted to take down two heritage homes to make way for rental apartments
KITCHENER — Kitchener’s heritage committee rejected an application to demolish two century homes near Victoria Park, saying the developer’s goal of providing relatively inexpensive rental housing shouldn’t lead to the loss of two more homes in a dwindling supply of heritage buildings along Queen Street South.
Vive Development Corp. wants to build a $22-million, 125-unit rental apartment at 242-262 Queen St. S. The apartments would be rented at “midmarket” rates, rather than providing high-end condos, said Vive principal Stephen Litt.
The site now has three buildings: the Oneroof youth shelter at 242 Queen St. S., built in 2007, and two homes built in 1890 at 254 and 262 Queen. The house at 262 Queen was built by prominent early industrialist C.A. Ahrens in 1890.
Ahrens, like many Kitchener factory owners, built his home close to his shoe and leather plant, and close to the homes of the factory workers. The home was later occupied by his son, also a prominent factory owner.
The committee heard two versions of the heritage value of the homes. A report prepared for the developer argued that the homes had no particular merit and are similar to others in the Victoria Park heritage district. The city’s Official Plan calls for greater density and intensification along Queen Street South, the report says, adding that other highrises surround the heritage homes.
But Leon Bensason, Kitchener’s co-ordinator of heritage planning, said in his report to the committee that the homes are in fair to good condition and “are two surviving examples of a declining number of late 19th-century buildings located on Queen Street South” within the heritage district.
But most of the buildings in the Victoria Park heritage district that have been demolished have been along Queen Street, Bensason said. “Without careful planning, visual evidence that this is one of the earliest and most historic streets in the city could decline,” the report says. Allowing the demolitions to go ahead could set a precedent for the loss of more homes along Queen, he said.
The committee voted 6-4 to allow the demolition of the Oneroof shelter, but refused the permits to demolish the older homes. Instead, it urged the developer to work with city staff to come up with a design that would save the century homes while still allowing some kind of increased density on the site.
Other developments have struck such a compromise, Bensason said, including the Sandhills retirement complex at Queen and St. George streets, which retained a heritage home at the front of the property, or the Bread and Roses co-operative housing.
But those examples are on corner lots that are much deeper, Litt said. Integrating a modern building with the heritage homes on his site would be “awkward” and expensive, he said. It would require the construction of a two-level underground garage, and reduce the number of units to 62 — roughly half the 125 units proposed, making the project “uneconomic,” Litt said.
His company isn’t anti-heritage, he said. “We have preserved dozens of buildings in Kitchener-Waterloo,” he said. “We’re not a company that goes out and demolishes everything. We really believe that this is a unique opportunity to provide some good, midmarket housing in a suitable planning environment.”
Council has final say on whether the city allows or refuses the demolitions at a meeting on Sept. 24.