Item - 2023.PB2.4

The Toronto Preservation Board recommends to the Toronto and East York Community Council that:

1. City Council refuse the issuance of a demolition permit for the heritage property at 18 Portland Street, in accordance with Section 34 of the Ontario Heritage Act.

2. If the owner appeals City Council’s decision to refuse the issuance of a demolition permit under Section 34 of the Ontario Heritage Act for the heritage property at 18 Portland Street, City Council authorize the City Solicitor and the necessary City staff to attend the Ontario Land Tribunal hearing in opposition to the appeal.

Anne Fisher, Program Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning gave a presentation on Demolition of a Designated Property - 18 Portland Street.

This report recommends that City Council refuse an application under Section 34 of the Ontario Heritage Act to demolish the historic Portland Substation building at 18 Portland Street.

City Council has stated its intention to designate the subject property under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act. A notice of intention to designate was served on the property owners and the Ontario Heritage Trust, and was published in accordance with the Act. The objection period ended on November 2, 2022. The City Clerk received a notice of objection on behalf of Davies Howe Land Development Advocacy & Litigation within the required timeframe set out in the Act. The Act requires that City Council consider and make a decision on an objection within 90 days from the end of the objection period. City Council may decide to withdraw, amend, or affirm its intention to designate. At its meeting on December 14, 2022 City Council affirmed its intention to designate the property at 18 Portland Street.  

Located on the southwest corner of Niagara Street and Portland Street in the King-Spadina neighbourhood, the former Portland Street Toronto Hydro-Electric System Substation, or Portland Substation, was once owned and operated by Toronto Hydro-Electric Systems Ltd. - a precursor to Toronto Hydro. The Portland Substation, completed in 1925 as a two-storey, factory/warehouse type structure, was designed by the public utility's in-house architect Albert E. Salisbury (1887-1955) and is part of a collection of more than twenty such substations by the architect built across the city between 1921 and 1950. The Portland Substation, like others by Salisbury, was designed in the Beaux-Arts tradition with Edwardian Classical influences. In close proximity to other early twentieth-century factory/warehouse type buildings, including several listed and Part IV designated properties, the Portland Substation is an important part of the industrial history of the King-Spadina neighbourhood.

An application under Section 34 of the Act has been submitted to demolish this building in order to allow for the construction of a 22 storey mixed-use building with commercial units at grade and residential units above. Under the Act, if City Council fails to make a decision on the heritage permit application within 90 days of issuing a notice of a complete application, the application is deemed to be permitted under Section 34 of the Ontario Heritage Act. In this case the applicant must be notified of Council's decision by March 30, 2023.