Item - 2020.PB15.9

The Toronto Preservation Board received the report (June 11, 2020) from the Senior Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning, for information.

The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of the 2020 Toronto Heritage Grant Program. The Toronto Heritage Grant Selection Committee recommended seventeen grants in 2020 totalling $317,000.00 under the Toronto Heritage Grant Program.  The recommended recipients will generate approximately $931,371.00 in private investment for work to conserve irreplaceable cultural heritage resources that contribute to the City's social and economic prosperity by defining our unique sense of place.  At its meeting of June 15, 2020, the Planning and Housing Committee recommended that City Council approve the seventeen grant awards for the 2020 Toronto Heritage Grant Program.

The Toronto Heritage Grant Program provides matching grant funds for eligible heritage conservation work of residential properties or tax exempt properties in the City of Toronto designated under Part IV or V of the Ontario Heritage Act (OHA). Applicants may receive a grant once every five years for up to 50 percent of the cost of eligible conservation work. Owners of house form buildings may receive up to $10,000, or if replacing an entire cedar or slate roof assembly, up to $20,000 every ten years. There is no maximum grant amount for applications for conservation work on non-house form buildings.

The properties that have been recommended for a grant award vary in size and location across Toronto. The majority of the grant recipients are residential properties located in Heritage Conservation Districts including several properties within the newly adopted West Annex Phase I Madison Avenue HCD. In addition there are a few notable landmark properties benefitting from heritage grants this year including the Scarborough Bluffs Refreshment Room, Arts and Letters Club, the Feather Factory Lofts, and South Humber Park Pavilion (The Oculus).