Item - 2022.PB37.6

The Toronto Preservation Board:

1. Requested the Senior Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning to review the current process and make a presentation to the Toronto Preservation Board regarding any recommended process changes, including public engagement, with respect to listed properties that are subsequently deemed not worthy of designation under the Ontario Heritage Act (OHA).

2. Requested the presentation at the September 20, 2022, meeting of the Toronto Preservation Board.

Heritage Planning of the City Planning Division brings forward for City Council approval reports recommending the addition to the City’s heritage register of "batch listings" of properties. Such properties may share, for example, similar age and characteristics, such as "two-storey main-street commercial." The reports are first presented to the Toronto Preservation Board, which makes recommendations to City Council regarding their approval. If the listings are adopted by City Council, they are added to the Heritage Register.

In due course, they are considered by Heritage Staff for designation under the Ontario Heritage Act (OHA), often in association with development applications that include all or some of the buildings in a particular batch. Listed properties affected by the development that are not recommended for designation are not protected from demolition by the OHA.

As a result of discussion at Toronto Preservation Board on July 11, 2022, of agenda item 36.8 regarding the designation of 1913 Yonge Street, one of a row of previously batch-listed buildings, board members Geoff Kettel and Paul Farrelly noted that there is no documented process to inform the public of the potential demolition of any listed properties not considered by Staff as worthy of designation. If they are demolished the Heritage Registry would be amended to indicate the demolition (without any public notice or further documentation).