THE OTTAWA EXPERIENCE OF ESTABLISHING HERITAGE CONSERVATION DISTRICTS

A GASTRONOMIC EXPERIENCE, OR A MEAL IN FOUR PARTS

By Stuart Lazear, MCIP, RPP,
Coordinator of Heritage Planning
Planning and Development
City of Ottawa

(Adapted from a presentation prepared for the CHO Workshop April, 2003)

Heritage district designation in Ottawa has evolved gradually since the initial designations in 1982. There are now 15 districts in the new City of Ottawa containing approximately 2700 properties.

These districts are very diverse. They include commercial “Main Streets” in the downtown core, institutional precincts, established residential neighbourhoods, and even one former municipality. The former Village of Rockcliffe Park was designated in its entirety in 1999 just prior to its amalgamation together with 10 other municipalities in 2000. Rockcliffe alone contains approximately 700 properties.

In the beginning.. The First Course

Step 1. The Official Plan. The establishment of heritage conservation districts is linked to the overall municipal planning process at the very start through the requirement for provisions in the City’s Official Plan expressing the intent to designate districts.

Step 2. Why designate this area? Suggestions for designation of a specific area can come from a variety of sources…the neighbourhood community association, City staff, LACAC, etc. The initial ideas for a district are often part of the recommendations in a neighbourhood study or secondary plan. They can also be spontaneous requests to a specific development pressure.

Step 3. Money. Identifying money in the City’s budget and waiting for approval. While not all heritage district studies in Ottawa have been carried out by consultants there are distinct advantages to hiring a consultant including a faster timeline.

Step 4. Passing a by-law to study.

Step 5. Consultation on the Terms of Reference for the study is done with a stakeholder group which can include representatives of heritage groups, community associations, business associations, government agencies, the local councillor, city staff, LACAC etc. It makes it a lot easier at the end of the road to have this initial consultation as broadly based as possible but it does not guarantee success.

Step 6. Approval of the Terms of Reference and budget by LACAC, Planning & Environment Committee and Council.

Step 7 Hiring the consultant.

Step 8. Conducting the study. The Terms of Reference for the study would be based on the Handbook for Evaluating Heritage Buildings and Areas which identifies three phases for the study.

Step 9. Phase 1. Hold a public meeting which introduces the study and consultant team to the community explaining the rationale for the study, the process, a bit of historical background and invites people to participate in the next phase which is survey or documentation and research. All area residents, property owners, businesses, community associations would be notified of this and subsequent public meetings through direct mailing, a flyer, newspaper ads, ads in community newspapers and newsletters, City web sites.

Step 10. Phase 2. Inventory & Evaluation. An evaluation team chaired by heritage planning staff is set up involving many of the stakeholders from the earlier review of the Terms of Reference and recruits from the first public meeting meets to evaluate the surveyed buildings. The team ranks the buildings on a scale of 1 to 4 to assist with the future management of the district. A group 4 building would be one of little or no heritage significance and would likely be approved for demolition subject to review of the replacement structure. A second public meeting is normally held after this phase.

Step 11. Phase 3. This phase involves the development of the actual recommendations for the district It will explain the options for district boundaries, explain proposed management guidelines and a draft study would be available for circulation.

Step 12. Finalization of consultant study and submission to City.

Step 13. Preparation of a covering Departmental Report and public notification to advise the community (as noted above) of the availability of both documents for review and comment. The public notification will also advise of the dates for the meetings of LACAC and Planning & Environment Committee which is the next step.

Step.14. Forwarding Departmental Report, Consultant Report to LACAC, Planning & Environment Committee and Council.

Step 15. If Council approves a recommendation to designate an area then a by-law is prepared.

Step 16. A designation by-law is passed and forwarded to the OMB for a hearing. All property owners are formally advised by letter of passage of the by-law and notice of passage of the by-law is published in the paper.

Step 17. If no appeal filed then the by-law takes effect if not, the OMB holds a hearing and possibly a pre-hearing if there are many issues and objections.

The Main Course…..Implementation

Once the designation is formally in place and the designation by-law has been registered on title or even somewhat before, the property addresses are put on the City’s MAP (Municipal Application Partnership) computer database so that they can be flagged when any form of development application is applied for. Heritage planners will make the determination whether an application requires a full review under the Ontario Heritage Act or if it can be dealt with internally.

Most non-substantive interventions are dealt with by heritage planning staff while demolitions, new construction in the district, large additions etc. are dealt with through formal reports involving public notification and Departmental Reports to LACAC, Planning & Environment Committee and Council. The Guidelines contained in the Heritage Conservation Studies, Official Plan, Secondary or Neighbourhood Studies provide guidance in assessing these substantive interventions. Approximately 25 of these reports are processed each year.

Applications screened through the MAP process are those requiring building permits. Restoration work that involves returning a property to its original condition is dealt with through the heritage grant process. The City’s heritage grant programme for the restoration of designated heritage properties can provide a matching grant of up to $5000 per property per owner per year for restoration work such as reshingling roofs in the original materials, restoring porches, restoring windows, repointing brick and stone masonry.

The budget allocation in 2002 was $100,000 and approximately 24 grants were approved last year. The allocation has now been increased to $150,000. Thirty two grants have been approved to November 2003. There has been a grant programme since 1980 and a Handbook exists for administering that programme.

Side Dishes

The overall management of interventions within heritage districts extends through many reviews and types of development applications which extend beyond statutory reviews under the Ontario Heritage Act. These include Committee of Adjustment, Site Plan Control, Demolition Control, Rezonings, Cash-in-lieu of parking, subdivision, sign approvals, property standards orders, etc. Applicatons under most, if not all of these processes are monitored by heritage planning staff as well as by LACAC through its development review sub-committee.

In the former Village of Rockcliffe Park, a Rockcliffe Park Residents Association Heritage Sub-Committee reviews proposed demolitions and new construction at a preliminary stage with heritage planning staff prior to formal submissions to the City under the Ontario Heritage Act, Site Plan etc. A member of that committee also sits on LACAC although there is not a formal tie-in between the two committees. Other established communities such as Sandy Hill and Centretown have their own heritage sub-committees which comment on development applications.

Most of the heritage conservation districts in the City of Ottawa have complementary zoning provisions under the Planning Act. This heritage overlay provision requires that if a building is demolished within a district it can only be replaced to the same footprint, height, massing as the existing building. The size and location of additions is also prescribed. Heritage zoning was initially put in place in Ottawa in 1975/76 as a result of recommendations contained first in the Centretown and then the Sandy Hill neighbourhood plans.

Causes of Indigestion

While there has been considerable success in identifying, designating and managing heritage conservation districts in Ottawa over the past twenty years (a relatively short period of time when you think of it), things do not always go perfectly.

There is currently no requirement under the Ontario Heritage Act for a property owner to maintain their property and if an owner is determined to let their property fall into disrepair there is little the City can do to require them to maintain it. If a property is occupied, the City can enforce maintenance under Property Standards By-laws but if the property is left vacant and unheated, the City itself or the Fire Marshal might issue an order to repair or demolish the structure. Proposed amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act currently before the
legislature would provide municipalities across Ontario with the ability to
enforce the maintenance of designated heritage properties.

While heritage zoning provisions are in place for most heritage districts, there is constant pressure on the districts through requests for minor variance . An additional half-storey here, a full-storey there and the character of the area is incrementally changed.

As the districts themselves become popular, they are surrounded by high density development right on the border without any transition in scale.

Dessert and Conclusion

The designation of heritage conservation districts in Ottawa has slowed, in part, because of the time and effort required in managing the existing 15 heritage districts, all but one of which is in the former City of Ottawa. The municipal amalgamation of 2000 combined 11 former municipalities (and one Regional level of government) to create one of the largest cities in Canada in terms of geographic area and the fourth largest in population (as per last census).

The new City is also 90% rural. As we become more efficient and creative, there may be an opportunity to concentrate on areas outside the boundaries of the former City of Ottawa and perhaps to reexamine some of the earlier district designations. The draft Official Plan of the new City encourages this examination and even suggests other alternatives (Cultural Heritage Character Areas S. 2.5.4.3) to heritage district designation for rural areas. At the moment, however, heritage district designation appears the only legal mechanism by which the City can exercise specific and detailed aesthetic design control over new construction in older areas.

The federal Historic Places Initiative and resulting National and Provincial Registers may provide an incentive to future district examination or perhaps reexamination of existing district designations but there needs to be a “dessert” in the form of some federal tax incentive or grant to encourage this.

The Ottawa experience described above is not a “recipe for success.” There are over 70 heritage conservation districts in Ontario and each has followed its own course. What is certain, however, is that there needs to be strong community and political ownership of the study process, proper documentation and research to justify the district, compatibility with the overall municipal planning for the area and extensive public consultation.

Bon appetit !