By Pepper Parr
May 13th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
John Reilly,the staff member who stick handles all the heritage issues explained at a Standing Committee meeting that what the city heritage people were trying to do with a property on Brant Street that was stumbling its way through a heritage issue said:
City council wants to see this heritage property to be part of the development planned for a Brant street location.
“Our goal is for them to incorporate this into a development” which, we have seen take place at other development; the Beausoleil at Pearl and Lakeshore and the Core development on old Lakeshore Road that has included the Carriage House restaurant into their development. The issue he was addressing was the house at Brant and Prospect.
Reilly said: “There are many conservation options and we’ve signalled flexibility throughout every meeting that we’ve had with the applicant.
View of the development currently under construction. The facade would be attached to the tower on the Pearl Street side which is on the left side of this rendering.
The Mayor moves the motion and comments that “your rationale is entirely defensible”, adding “We have seen how well development can be incorporated into heritage redevelopment and the best example currently which is really exciting to see in real time is the Pearl and Lake Shore redevelopment adding that she has “never believed that it’s either preserve heritage or have redevelopment.”
“I believe there’s a win win here. And staff have been very clear about encouraging the applicant to go for the win win. “I continue to encourage them to incorporate this into a redevelopment and redo their plans. So fingers crossed, but I certainly support what we have here.”
The development the Mayor was excited about on Pearl at Lakeshore can be seen below.
Once the home of the Pearl Street Cafe and a commercial graphics business.
All that is left is the façade of the house. Once the 29 storey tower is complete the facade will be attached to the tower on the Pearl street side so that people can see what the streetscape looked like at one point in the history of the city.
Nothing about what the inside of the two story house looked like.
This is the state of heritage preservation in Burlington today.
It’s horrible how we think this is respecting heritage buildings in Burlington. It isn’t even respecting the people who walk by the thing.
The Pearl Street site was left to crumble into disrepair as soon as it was bought by the developer, so typical in our downtown. A once beautiful house (and a gorgeous big tree which was also cut down on the site long ago) is reduced to this. It’s shameful that the city and the mayor say that this is preserving heritage!
Go to cities where they actually care and tell me this is ok. When I go to a heritage house (in cities who keep them whole), I love to see the features from the period – maybe the mouldings on the ceiling, the second staircase at the back, the little nooks, imagining what the rooms were for. I love seeing the entire building from the street as I walk by because it’s not just about the front wall!
There’s a little hotel I love to stay at in Halifax – the whole thing is a series of beautiful old heritage houses, window boxes out front, much of the original features inside and out as possible.
Sorry Burlington that instead we chop ours up, stick them on another boring glass tower and worst of all, claim that the we are valuing and saving heritage properties.