Kitchener council won’t designate ‘old, hacked-up’ house after owner objects
Kitchener won’t seek heritage designation for an 1898 Queen Annestyle home after councillors agreed with the owner’s objections.
Shane Stickel appeared before council this week, asking that the house he owns at 70 Francis St. N. not be designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.
In December, council had agreed to give notice of its intention to designate the house following recommendations from Heritage Kitchener and heritage planning staff.
A city report described the twoand-a-half-storey house near Water Street North as “a representative example of a late-19th century residential dwelling constructed in the Queen Anne Revival architectural style.”
This week, Stickel called it “an old, hacked-up income property.”
Stickel said he and his wife bought the building as an investment property in 2021, and he wasn’t told it was listed on the municipal heritage register as a non-designated property.
Once home to Albert Ruby of the Krug Furniture company, the building is now divided into three lower-income residential units and one commercial unit, Stickel said.
“The building itself certainly boasts interesting architecture, but the house itself is far from the beautiful single-family home it once was.”
Its link to Ruby, a prominent businessperson, was cited as one of the reasons why designation was recommended.
The city has been working to evaluate dozens of properties like this one that are listed on the register but aren’t designated; new rules from the province mean any listed buildings that aren’t designated by 2025 must come off the register and can’t be re-listed for five years.
Designation helps to recognize heritage value and ensure appropriate conservation, but it also puts more responsibility on the owner — for example, any work on a building that’s likely to remove, damage or change an identified heritage attribute must get city approval, and the methods and materials required can be more costly.
Stickel said a lot of the building’s exterior elements, ranging from windows and brick to fascia, soffit and a decorative frieze, are deteriorating and need work.
“All these items, I cannot afford to fix to the standards of the heritage society, regardless of the insignificant $3,000 a year grant that I could possibly apply for,” he said.
Coun. Paul Singh said Stickel articulated “the increased pressure that (designation) places on the property owner. … These things have consequences.”
Singh agreed with Stickel that Ruby’s business legacy is better represented by the historic Krug factory building on Ahrens Street than by his home.
Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said it’s important to differentiate between introducing designation for a residence as opposed to a business, which could write off related expenses.
“I think in those circumstances, we do need to give strong consideration to the input that we’re getting from the resident in going forward.”