By Andrew Waldron
When the Davis government created the Ontario Heritage Acct in the mid-1970s to protect heritage conservation districts (HCDs), it was in response to urban clearance and demolition. The Act was passed to protect unique and interesting areas that had a special sense of time and place with a historic integrity, unlike other areas outside of a district. But now, rather than urban clearance, it is urban densification – at the expense of healthy livable communities – that is the pressure to protect them.
Lowertown West and the ByWard Market are the two HCDs in our community. They are to be managed as cultural resources, allowing for compatible changes, following approved heritage standards, and driven by a sense of care for preserving these areas because they hold historic significance. Except, this is not always the case.
In Canada, we still haven’t embraced the idea of long-term management of these places, especially when competing individuals are interested in profiting from land holdings and have the means to sway a committee to their favour or battle it out before a tribunal. Our lives are regulated in many ways, but when it comes to heritage, it oddly becomes an argument of individual rights over community good, which sadly means that conserved places are gradually eroded one property at a time.
Lowertown-West-map-HCD2Lowertown West and the ByWard Market are special and unique conservation districts. They are valued for their “history of generations of Ottawa’s working people, both French and English speaking, and the physical record of that social history, represented by both the institutions and the residential buildings, is a major cultural resource for the City of Ottawa.” Lowertown is the oldest settler community on this side of the Ottawa River and is connected to the construction of the Rideau Canal and the founding of Bytown. The richness of both districts is evident in the surviving range of buildings, streetscapes, parks and other vestiges. Both the HCDs were designated by the City in the early 1990s after studies were completed. Currently, the City’s heritage planning group is undertaking an update to the two HCDs: https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/public-engagement/projects/lowertown-west-and-byward-market-heritage-conservation-district-update. This work will build on earlier inventories of the properties and examine properties adjacent to the districts. According to the City, “in the fall of 2021, writing of the draft HCD Plan will commence. A public information session is expected to be held in the fall.”
Each district is governed by the Ontario Heritage Act, which was recently amended by the Ford government on July 1, 2021 and needs to follow the new Provincial Policy Statement (2020), which states: “Significant built heritage resources … shall be conserved.” All planning needs to take this statement into consideration when managing a conservation district. The new Act remains clear that property owners must obtain municipal approval for alterations, additions or demolitions within a district.
Byward-Market-HCD-MapWhat are the key issues affecting our two districts?
Erosion at the boundaries of the districts is a major challenge. There are two parcels of land within the Lowertown West HCD that are up for sale, with both being promoted by the realtors as development opportunities that may contravene the conservation plans and other zoning. The former Our Lady’s School site has been a disastrous example of how both the owner and the City have failed to rehabilitate this area of the district. Recently, St. Brigid’s Church was put up for sale. Designated for its impressive interior, it was bought for $450,000 in 2007 and is now up for sale for $6-million. Its lack of restoration has resulted in the building requiring major repairs.
A by-product of intensification – which encourages density but not community – is creating a canyon effect surrounding the ByWard Market HCD. The consequence is pressures on the borders of the ByWard Market without acknowledging the impact it will have on the district’s integrity. A buffer zone would be ideal, but planning principles don’t encourage this. There are several proposals at Dalhousie and York (within the conservation district) to create more hotel towers. Another example of densification for the Lowertown West HCD is the proposed development of the Shepherds of Good Hope proposal, which recommends that:
while the eight-storey height is taller than the other two- to three-storey buildings in the immediate vicinity, the subject property is not directly beholden to the Lowertown West HCD guidelines for infill development and there are similar scaled buildings adjacent to the Lowertown West HCD boundaries.
The logic here is that once one tower has been built, others are acceptable.
Unfortunately, under our current system experts willing to support a development are sought out, community expertise is dismissed, City staff are consulted before the community and in the end, the community is forced to be reactive to changes. Under the current system, a councillor, a planner, or a consultant will focus on the single application and may not see the bigger picture of what makes a community within a district.
While pre-pandemic many of us sought out destinations to visit with stronger protection of their districts, we remain ambivalent to strengthening the impressive and unique assets we have in downtown Ottawa. There is an opportunity to strengthen the districts and their surrounding development pressures, but it requires a stronger community, since rarely do bureaucracies serve communities well.