Item - 2023.PB3.7

The Toronto Preservation Board recommends to the Planning and Housing Committee that:

1. City Council include the following nine properties on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register in accordance with the Listing Statement (Reasons for Inclusion) attached as Attachments 1 through 5 to the report (January 27, 2023) from the Senior Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning.

239 Gerrard Street East

241 Gerrard Street East

243 Gerrard Street East

245 Gerrard Street East

247 Gerrard Street East

249 Gerrard Street East (including the entrance addresses of 251 and 253 Gerrard Street East)

509 Parliament Street  

1871 Weston Road  

1885 Weston Road

This report recommends that City Council include nine properties on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register for their cultural heritage value and interest.

The nine properties being recommended for inclusion on the Register are as follows:

239 Gerrard Street East, Toronto-Centre - Ward 13

241 Gerrard Street East, Toronto-Centre - Ward 13

243 Gerrard Street East, Toronto-Centre - Ward 13

245 Gerrard Street East, Toronto-Centre - Ward 13

247 Gerrard Street East, Toronto-Centre - Ward 13

249 Gerrard Street East (including 251 and 253 Gerrard Street East) - Ward 13

509 Parliament Street, Toronto-Centre - Ward 13

1871 Weston Road, York South-Weston - Ward 5

1885 Weston Road, York South-Weston - Ward 5

All of the nine properties recommended for inclusion on the City's Heritage Register have been researched and evaluated by staff using the criteria prescribed in Ontario Regulation 9/06 and all of the properties meet one or more of the provincial criteria for determining cultural heritage value or interest and are believed to be of cultural heritage value or interest.

The subject properties include a significant grouping of Second Empire-style, mixed-use buildings along Gerrard Street west of Parliament Street in the Cabbagetown Southwest Heritage Conservation District Study Area, a representative example of an early-twentieth-century movie theatre with a subsequent history as a CBC studio in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood, as well as a mid-twentieth-century, modernist-style bank building, and a mid-twentieth-century, Neo-Gothic-style church building, both with important historical/associative values related to Weston.

The listing of non-designated properties on the municipal heritage register under the Act also extends interim protection from demolition and provides an opportunity for City Council to determine whether the property warrants conservation through designation under the Act should a development or demolition application be submitted.

On January 1, 2023, amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act (the Act) through the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 (Bill 23) came into effect. Under the Act as amended, a municipal heritage register may include properties that have not been designated but Council believes to be of "cultural heritage value or interest", and that meet one or more of the provincial criteria for determining whether they are of cultural heritage value or interest. The Act now also limits listing to a period of two years.

As of January 1, 2023, should a property be subject to an Official Plan Amendment, Zoning By-law Amendment and/or Draft Plan of Subdivision Application that would trigger a Prescribed Event, the property must be listed in the heritage register prior to the Prescribed Event occurring to designate a property. This requirement does not apply to a Prescribed Event that has occurred prior to January 1, 2023.

 A "Prescribed Event" is a point of time when the application for an Official Plan Amendment, Zoning By-law Amendment and/or Draft Plan of Subdivision Application has been deemed complete and the City Clerk provides notice of that complete application to the public in accordance with the Planning Act. 

The recent amendments to the Act limit listing of non-designated properties to a period of two years.  If a listed property is not subject to a Notice of Intention to Designate within 2 years, on and after the second anniversary of the property being listed in the heritage register, the legislation deems the property be removed from the heritage register after a 2 year period and imposes a 5 year prohibition on re-including that property in the heritage register, if deemed to be removed.

Properties on the Heritage Register will be conserved and maintained in accordance with the Official Plan Heritage Policies. Heritage Impact Assessments (HIA) are required for development applications that affect listed properties.