Motion to deregister Hugh Mackay house as heritage property defeated

Truro council had authority, but motion contradicted provincial legislation

“It has been my long-held passion to own a heritage house. When I was in the sixth grade I had a paper route ... I saved $13 after a year and I wanted to use that to buy a heritage house. I was really mad I couldn’t buy it for $13.”

Shauna Harrison

TRURO – One motion put forward during Truro’s March 4 council meeting left some councillors bewildered. This was because the motion, to deregister a heritage property without meeting the prerequisites, went against provincial legislation.

Shauna Harrison and Craig Wright, owners of 24 Victoria Street, applied to have their historic property, recognized by the town as the Hugh P. Mackay house, deregistered.

Harrison explained the submission for their application during a public hearing before the monthly council meeting on March 4.

She has lived alongside Wright at the property for 10 years, she said. Owning a heritage property was always her dream—so much so that she studied architecture in college.

“It has been my long-held passion to own a heritage house,” said Harrison. When I was in the sixth grade I had a paper route ... I saved $13 after a year and I wanted to use that to buy a heritage house. I was really mad I couldn’t buy it for $13.”

When her dream came true, she began having issues finding tradespeople to perform maintenance and encountered problems with their insurance.

Harrison said one of the first questions she would be asked when calling tradespeople is if the property was a heritage property. When she replied yes, they would all say they weren’t interested. Even if they could get someone to work on their house, the cost would be triple due to it being a heritage property.

She has also had insurance inspectors come by two or three times to look for maintenance faults, adding they were “always panicking” to ensure their projects were finished.

PROVINCIAL LEGISLATION

According to Nova Scotia’s Heritage Property Act, a heritage property can only be de-registered if it has been destroyed or damaged by any cause or is deemed to have lost its heritage value.

In Harrison’s case, neither cause applied to their property. For this reason, the Heritage Advisory Committee and the town's Planning Advisory Committee recommended the application be denied.

However, Harrison took the opportunity in front of council to share with them some ideas on how their issues, potentially shared with other

heritage property owners in the area, can be better managed.

She spoke of setting up a bank of tradespeople willing to work on heritage properties for easy access, as well as incentives for tradespeople to be more willing to work on heritage properties.

Harrison also mentioned establishing grants or funding to help heritage property owners with expensive upkeep costs and going across the province to see what other municipalities are doing in terms of heritage properties and their upkeep.

COUNCIL’S THOUGHTS

While Coun. Wayne Talbot voiced his concern with funding private property owners, while Mayor Bill Mills accepted their suggestions.

“Many of the things you brought up, I think, are reasonable,” said Mills, adding he would be willing to go to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to learn more about what other municipalities across the country are doing.

Deputy Mayor Cathy Hinton, who sits on the Heritage Advisory Committee, said she loved their ideas and suggested several contacts who could help them overcome their issues without deregistering their property.

Coun. Jim Flemming expressed concern about selling the property if it was deregistered. Harrison said she wouldn’t dream of it.

“My passion is architectural design; that’s what my degree is in,” she said. “I love that house.”

She added the only upgrades they have done have been to meet the fire code.

Wright added he hoped for it to be his last house.

Coun. Allison Graham asked about the challenge of selling a heritage property. Harrison recalled their real estate agent trying to convince them not to buy 24 Victoria Street.

COUNCIL’S AUTHORITY

Flemming turned to Planning Director Jason Fox to ask if they had the authority to deregister the property.

“You have the authority to do that, but I would advise you the act is quite clear that you don’t really have the legal right to do so,” replied Fox.

Regardless, Flemming voiced his intentions to make a motion to deregister the property.

Talbot voiced his disagreement and confusion.

“I’m troubled by the fact that we’re being asked to consider something that’s illegal,” he said at the end of the public hearing. “I don’t comprehend that.”

As the hearing ended and the council meeting began, Flemming proceeded with his motion.

Town Solicitor Charles Thompson attempted to clarify the issue.

“It is up to council whether or not to deregister a municipal heritage property, but under the legislation, it’s only got that authority if one of the two conditions is met that the Director of Planning referred to,” said Thompson. It seems pretty clear neither of those criteria is met in this case, and those are the only two criteria that the legislation would allow a deregistration.”

“It still falls to council whether or not to deregister,” said CAO Mike Dolter. “There’s still a process we have to go through, and it has to come before council to make that decision. The decision is fairly clear; we just need council to ratify the proposed motion.”

The motion to deregister 24 Victoria Street as a heritage property was defeated 5-2, with only Flemming and Graham in favour.

The last time Truro’s council voted to deregister a heritage property was around 10 years ago.