Item - 2023.PB5.5

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

1. City Council include the property located at 817 Mount Pleasant Road on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register in accordance with the Listing Statement (Reasons for Inclusion) attached as Attachment 1 to the report (April 6, 2023) from the Senior Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning.

Gary Miedema, Planner, Heritage Preservation, Urban Design, City Planning gave a presentation on 817 Mount Pleasant Road - Inclusion on the Heritage Register.

This report recommends that City Council include 817 Mount Pleasant Road on the

City of Toronto's Heritage Register for its cultural heritage value and interest.

The subject property, St. Peter's Estonian Lutheran Church, recommended for inclusion on the City's Heritage Register has been researched and evaluated by staff using the criteria prescribed in Ontario Regulation 9/06 and the property meets one or more of the provincial criteria for determining cultural heritage value or interest and is believed to be of cultural heritage value or interest.

The subject property includes a Mid-Century Modernist style church designed and completed in 1955 by Estonian-Canadian architect Michael Bach which as a place of worship has significant historical and associative connections to the Estonian-Canadian community.

In 2018, the Midtown in Focus Study Cultural Heritage Resource Assessment identified 817 Mount Pleasant Avenue as having potential cultural heritage value. The Yonge-Eglinton Official Plan Amendment (OPA 405) identifies the property on Map 21-10.

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, properties must be listed on the heritage register prior to Part IV designation and before the occurrence of a prescribed event. 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 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.

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