Item - 2024.PB15.3

The Toronto Preservation Board:

1. Deferred the consideration of this item until the March 28, 2024 meeting of the Toronto Preservation Board.

This report recommends that City Council include thirteen properties on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register for their cultural heritage value and interest. The thirteen properties recommended for inclusion on the Heritage Register include three properties on Elm Street between Yonge and Bay streets, and ten properties on River Street north of Queen Street East. 

The three properties located along Elm Street extending eastward to Yonge Street include two Confederation-era, Georgian Revival style house-form buildings, and one mixed-use Second Empire style building, all of which support a unique and evolved streetscape in what was once the historically significant St. John’s Ward (also known as “The Ward”).

The second group of ten properties are located on River Street, north of Queen Street East and south of Regent Park, and include eight Bay-and-Gable style, semi-detached house-form buildings and two Romanesque Revival style, semi-detached house-form buildings which were retained through community activism in the development of Trefann Court that marked the end of urban renewal projects in the 1970s in the area.

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

- 346 Yonge Street (including entrance addresses 1, 3, and 5 Elm Street), University-Rosedale – Ward 11

- 7 Elm Street, University-Rosedale - Ward 11

- 13 Elm Street, University-Rosedale - Ward 11

- 34 River Street, Toronto Centre - Ward 13

- 36 River Street, Toronto Centre - Ward 13

- 38 River Street, Toronto Centre - Ward 13

- 40 River Street, Toronto Centre - Ward 13

- 42 River Street, Toronto Centre - Ward 13

- 44 River Street, Toronto Centre - Ward 13

- 46 River Street, Toronto Centre - Ward 13

- 48 River Street, Toronto Centre - Ward 13

- 50 River Street, Toronto Centre - Ward 13

- 52 River Street, Toronto Centre - Ward 13

The subject 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 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.

On January 1, 2023, amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act through the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 (Bill 23) came into effect. Under the Ontario Heritage Act, as amended, a municipal heritage register may include properties for a period of two years 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 Ontario Heritage Act also states that 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. 

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.  Following further research and evaluation, staff may recommend designation of the property under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act and seek appropriate conservation.