Four scotches in five minutes – not bad for a retired bookstore owner who set council straight on the designated homes registry.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  November 21, 2011 –  When someone appears before Council to speak to an issue they are given five minutes to make their point.  Jane Irwin, retired book store owner and a one time member of the Heritage Committee told council way back in April,  she was there to scotch some rumours and false information about the Heritage Property Registry .

“Watching the recent streamed Community Development Committee meeting,” said Irwin,  “I seemed to hear certain misstatements of fact about the Heritage Property Registry  – – which I had heard before, and which I hope to set right tonight.

I want to speak to you before your Workshop because untruthful rumors, whatever their sources, can be very difficult to correct, especially if they circulate unchallenged.

This is a Burlington home on Walkers line that is on the housing inventory and has been given a grade which tells something about the house. That's all the grade does. There is much confusion about the inventory grades and what they mean.

Councillors hear a lot from spokesmen claiming to represent about 1/5 of owners of properties on the heritage register.  Spokesmen, she added are “not sworn to speak the truth to Council”  Luther Holton, Ms Irwin advised, “speaks very well for himself and his mother and needs no spokesman”.

I’d like to scotch 4 of them” said Irwin.

1:   Registry was not produced by the Heritage Committee, but by Burlington’s Planning staff, initially professional Planner Marilyn Lagzdins.  The Director of Planning at the time was Gary Goodman.

2:  Inventory was never produced by summer students. That statement is completely and utterly false.  It implies that irresponsible students with no experience, no mature judgment for the job put homes on a list.  Not true.

3: There is the belief that the Grades A B C D that were assigned to homes were subjective or impressionistic.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The grade assignment criteria were the result of objective evaluations based on meticulously responsible criteria.  There were 20 criteria in 5 different categories with a ceiling that could be given in each category.  A grade of C represented “ordinary” standard and a grade of D was given to properties for which there was no information.   We made an annual presentation of the revised Inventory to Council every year from 1992 until 2001

One of the references used for the development of the criteria was Harold Kalman’s    The Evaluation of Historic Buildings  and the 1970 Canadian Inventory of Historic Buildings   Parks Canada.  Click on the link to learn what grades A,B,C and D mean.

The Council Committee meeting was told that the Burlington Historical Society has data on some 80 First Class buildings in the city that are more than 100 years old and there are almost 30 Century Farms in Burlington  — living history.  Irwin also pointed out that in 1992 the Lakehurst Villa, the La Salle Pavilion and Shore Acres (now Paletta) Mansion were not on the Inventory.

4:  There is the hint that Heritage Committee members were unpaid volunteers, amateurs or worse, dilettantes.  Heritage Committee members in my experience were lawyers, architects, designers / builders, engineers and planners. People whose ancestors came to Burlington more than 200 years ago.

A Burlington farm house - thought to be of historical significance and given a grade on the inventory the city keeps of such properties.

To describe the people who sat on that committee the way they have been described is a dis-courtesy to the members of your other volunteer advisory committees

Irwin added that: “Professionals working in Toronto for the Government of Ontario, including one whose responsibility it was to revise the Ontario legislation that has been the most troublesome to property owners, and which has gravely disrespected their right do what they like with their own properties”.

Council got its first primer on what the issues were behind the squabbles over buildings that are on a Heritage Registry. Mayor Goldring was so impressed with her performance that he asked Ms Irwin if she would take part in the workshop session planned to fully brief Council members before a second workshop session takes place with the owners of the homes that are on the Registry.  She didn’t take him up on the offer.

 

 

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