Reviews mixed on new heritage area
A Vancouver neighbourhood has been designated the city’s first heritage conservation area.
Heritage advocates are lauding the city’s unanimous decision made at a council meeting Tuesday to protect homes in the historic First Shaughnessy District, however, many homeowners remain opposed to the idea.
“These heritage conservation areas are a new phenomenon that’s come up and I’m not sure how sustainable they are,” said Robert Angus, who has lived in First Shaughnessy for more than 30 years and owns a home that was built around 1912. “I don’t think there’s been nearly enough study in doing something this significant.”
First Shaughnessy is the area bound by West 16th, King Edward, Arbutus and Oak streets. There are 595 properties in the neighbourhood, of which 315 were constructed before 1940. Eighty of the properties are currently listed on the Vancouver Heritage Register.
Under the plan, pre-1940 heritage homes in the area will be protected from demolition.
As a trade-off, the proposed new regulations will allow additional dwelling uses and units, such as secondary suites, coach houses, infill buildings and multiple-conversion dwellings. A property-maintenance bylaw will govern how properties in the heritage area must be maintained.
“By designating First Shaughnessy as Vancouver’s first heritage conservation area, we are taking a balanced approach that will prevent the demolition of these historic homes while providing new opportunities to add very modest density where appropriate,” Mayor Gregor Robertson said in a news release.
Angus takes issue with the blanket approach to heritage conservation because, he says, some First Shaughnessy homes shouldn’t be preserved because they’re not efficient or historically significant.
“At some point or another it becomes kind of ridiculous,” he said.
Many homeowners are concerned about how their property values will be affected.
“If the house is built up to the maximum the property can support or is fairly modern, there will be no effect,” Angus said.
“The problem you’ve got is with older houses that are way less than the property can support. They will suffer significantly.”