Historic designation prompts debate about attention city gives to heritage
Demong says owners, not city, should be pushing designations
A question about the designation of a 113-year-old downtown cathedral as a municipal heritage site sparked a debate in council chambers Monday about city investment in heritage planning at a time when the city’s economy is suffering.
The Church of the Redeemer, a graceful Anglican church building clad in local sandstone, is one step closer to receiving its municipal historic resource designation following a meeting of the city’s planning committee Monday.
Committee members unanimously approved granting the designation, although it still needs to goto council for final approval. The discussion also prompted a question about whether the city should be identifying and encouraging property owners who already hold a provincial historic designation to seek a municipal one.
The idea was quickly slapped down by Coun. Peter Demong.
“I do think it is incumbent upon the actual owners of the property to seek designation; I don’t think it’s something we should be actively doing,” Demong said.
“We shouldn’t be going out there looking for locations. I encourage private ownership to come forward and do it, but I don’t think we should be spending administration’ s time and efforts to do that .”
Demon gt old reporters following the meeting that he’s happy that Calgary is designating historic resources, but questioned whether the city required three planners devoted to heritage during “these times of fiscal restraint.”
Coun. Druh Farrell disagreed, arguing that more needs to be done to preserve the city’s “precious” historic properties. Farrell said she’s in favour of the city encouraging more owners to seek municipal designation and said she would like to see more federal dollars made available in the form of grants or tax credits for projects to restore and preserve significant sites.
“We should be doing everything we can to show the benefits of designation,” Farrell said. “Designation is always the best practice for a property of this significance. And there’s also benefits that aren’t clearly communicated to the owner. That’s what part of what our heritage department is there for: to have these irreplaceable precious buildings preserved for the future.”
Calgary Heritage Authority (CHA) executive director Josh Traptow said there is an enormous amount of historically significant property in Calgary that has not yet been designated. More than 800 properties have been identified by the CHA and just 100 of them have been designated by the city.
Part of the problem, Traptow said, is there isn’t a lot of money currently available to owners in Calgary for restoration projects. The city offers matching funds for heritage projects each year from a reserve of just $225,000. A significant amount of that money is already spoken for in 2018 and some applicants are being told it could be another year before their project will receive any funds. The province also offers some funds for provincially designated sites.
“I think designations help the community,” Traptow said.
“Perhaps different levels of governmentcould work closer together to either provide some more incentives, whether it’ s a tax credit or a more robust grant program, that could encourage more owners to seek municipal designation.”