{"id":23512,"date":"2019-04-11T20:31:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T00:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23512"},"modified":"2019-04-18T12:25:47","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:25:47","slug":"heritage-demolition-raises-council-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/heritage-demolition-raises-council-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Heritage demolition raises Council questions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The demolition of a heritage building in northeast Aurora\nbefore it was de-listed has raised the ire of Council and heritage advocates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council members are calling for harsher penalties for\nsuch demolitions without a permit after a building on the southeast corner of\nSt. John\u2019s Sideroad and Leslie Street met the wrecking ball before Council had\nthe opportunity to sign off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going into last week\u2019s General Committee meeting, Council\nwas facing a staff recommendation agreeing to the building at 1625-1675 St.\nJohn\u2019s Sideroad be removed from the Town\u2019s register of properties \u201cof Cultural\nHeritage Value or Interest,\u201d thus paving the way for its demolition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recommendation also called for, as part of the future\nDraft Plan of Subdivision of the area, that the property be remembered in\nvarious ways, including street names, and the salvaging of foundation stones to\nbe incorporated into a heritage marker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The property in question, according to a report from\nMunicipal Planner Adam Robb, is considered a \u201cworker house estate\u201d with a\ntwo-storey brick residence dating from the 1960s, along with an equestrian\ncomplex from the same era. The property also held a 19th<\/sup> century\nbarn, a one-storey mid-century cottage, and a further residence dating from\nafter 1927.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Cultural Heritage Assessment and Heritage Working Group\nevaluation found that the property as a whole did not meet Provincial standards\nfor heritage preservation, nor did any of the individual buildings on side, but\nstaff recommended a heritage plaque be installed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Heritage Impact Assessment on the\nproperty, the land in question was first granted to King\u2019s College in 1828. The\noriginal grant covered 200 acres but by 1847, the eastern half of the property\nwas sold to a John Wilson, with the second half sold in 1862 to Thomas Coates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCoates was a Quaker farmer born in 1815, according to\nthe 1961 Canada West Census,\u201d reads the assessment. \u201cThe census indicates that\nCoates and his wife Lydia were living in a one-storey frame house with their\nseven children. Coates held the subject property well into the late 19th<\/sup>\ncentury. In 1892, Coates sold his undivided interest in the 100 acres of the\nwest half of the lot to his son Benjamin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later that year, Benjamin Coates sold the western half of\nthe lot to James Hill and it changed hands many times over the subsequent\nyears. In 1927, the Finney family sold most of the property to the Sifton\nFamily, who flipped it to an investment company, which held it for over two\ndecades before being acquired by Carolyn A. Sifton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In subsequent decades, under a further new owner, the\nland became known for its equestrian activities under the name Hill N\u2019 Dale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lands are slated to redevelopment as part of Aurora\u2019s\n2C Plan and the property owners submitted a demolition permit earlier this\nyear. Under regulations, the Town had 60 days for the application to move\nthrough the system, including review from the Town\u2019s Heritage Advisory\nCommittee and, finally, Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But property owners beat Council to the punch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe dwelling is no longer there with the barn \u2013 it was\nremoved within the 40th<\/sup> day of the 60-day period in which the\ndemolition permit had been applied for,\u201d said David Waters, Aurora\u2019s new\nDirector of Planning, following questions from Councillor John Gallo, who asked\nfor the matter to be looked into. \u201cWe will be adding a surcharge to their\ndemolition permit to cover the dwelling removal prematurely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe that staff did support the delisting and there\nwere some conditions regarding its removal. For instance, saving some of the\nstonework for a plaque, and recognizing its equestrian heritage through the\nstreet naming\u2026those are conditions the Committee did support based on staff\u2019s\nrecommendations, but they also said the owner of the property prematurely\ndemolished the barn within the 60 day period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was not good enough for Councillor Gallo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it is still a listed property; Council has never\ndelisted the property,\u201d said the Councillor. \u201cThe property that was listed was\ndemolished and all they\u2019re going to get is a fine. That\u2019s pretty sad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Tom Mrakas said he didn\u2019t disagree with Councillor\nGallo\u2019s assessment, saying it was \u201cvery disappointing.\u201d He went on to question\nwhether there was anything else the Town could do in this case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whole Town Solicitor Patricia De Sario said she would\nhave to look into the matter further, she said a heftier fine could be levied\nunder the Ontario Heritage Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is concerning for all of us here,\u201d Mayor Mrakas\nconcluded. \u201cI think we all value our heritage and it is something we need to\nensure so that people don\u2019t jump the gun and take matters into their own hands.\nWe\u2019ve seen many times demolition by decay, we see it time and time again. It is\nsomething we need to discourage and make sure there are proper fines in place\nthat allow us to discourage this from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Councillor Rachel Gilliland: \u201cWe need to have a\npolicy in place to make it not encouragable for someone to just pay this fine\nand move on. It is not something we should take lightly [and] we need to look\nat the monetary consequences of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The demolition of a heritage building in northeast Aurora before it was de-listed has raised the ire of Council and heritage advocates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-67e","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 16:51:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}