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Beaconsfield bylaw would protect heritage buildings
The aim is to save ‘architectural gems’
Anne Sutherland
The Gazette
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Beaconsfield city council is in the process of crafting a tighter bylaw that would protect houses and buildings that have been identified as having heritage or architectural value.
The idea is to ensure the integrity of these homes and buildings against the possible actions of future owners who might want to raze the house and put up a modern mansion.
“Some current heritage property owners are concerned about what they see as poor renovations among their neighbours (and) loss of lake views,” said Wade Staddon, a Beaconsfield councillor and president of the Planning and Advisory Committee.
“There is a concern that historical homes are being changed in ways that make them lose their value as architectural gems. A few have been lost in the past few years in the waterfront area.”
The province of Quebec gives heritage status to buildings of a certain age. Beaconsfield wants to preserve the character of other buildings, perhaps as young as 50 years old, with their own architectural cachet.
Beaconsfield did a survey in the early 1990s and divided the city into 16 character zones, as defined by their aesthetics.
“The character zones lay out what you can build, but the definitions are very loose right now,” Staddon said.
In 2000-2001, an inventory was done of all the buildings in the city, rating them on a scale of one to five stars, based on architectural and heritage values.
What Beaconsfield wants is to characterize all homes with three or more stars as worthy of being protected from demolition or additions that do no jive with the aesthetics of the current structure.
“Thirty-eight buildings have been cited as having architectural and heritage status,” Staddon said.
Most of the buildings are in the oldest part of the city, close to the waterfront on Lakeshore Rd. and Beaconsfield Blvd.
Maggie McCulloch and her family own one of those homes and she said that there are more pressing issues the council could be addressing, such as homes not on the list that are being torn down and replaced by huge stone buildings.
“We’re passionate about our homes and plan to keep them just the way they are,” McCulloch said last month.
“I appreciate the stance Beaconsfield is taking, but they should be preserving zones and not just homes.”
Donald Mathewson, who has lived on Lakeshore Rd. for 15 years, echoed the sentiment.
“This (bylaw) doesn’t really address the problem, (which is) the surrounding houses,”
Mathewson said, pointing to a large stone home that was put up over the foundation of an older home.
“We’ll wind up with a barricade between us and the Lakeshore,” he said of his enviable view of Lac St. Louis.
Besides private homes, there are churches, schools and the Beaconsfield train station on the list.
“We have been discussing the details with the affected homeowners since last year,” Staddon said. “When we have an agreement that everyone can live with we’ll put forward the bylaw, hopefully in the fall.”