Item - 2024.PB25.8

The Toronto Preservation Board:

1. Received for information the report (November 18, 2024) from the Senior Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning, entitled Weston (Phase 2) Heritage Conservation District Study - Final Report.

2. Endorsed the list of heritage potential properties recommended for further research and evaluation in Attachment 7 – Properties with Potential Cultural Heritage Value Recommended for Further Research and that staff bring forward recommendations for any properties that merit inclusion on the City's Heritage Register.

Loryssa Calogero, Heritage Planner, Policy and Research, Urban Design, City Planning gave a presentation on Weston (Phase 2) Heritage Conservation District Study - Final Report.

The purpose of this final report is to summarize the findings of the Weston (Phase 2) Heritage Conservation District (HCD) Study ("the Study") conducted by City staff, and to recommend that the Toronto Preservation Board endorse staff's recommendation that the Study not proceed to the Plan Phase because the study area does not meet the provincial criteria to merit Part V designation under the Ontario Heritage Act.

On January 31, 2018, City Council adopted item PG25.4 directing that a Heritage Conservation District study be initiated for the Weston (Phase 2) HCD Study Area as identified on the map in Attachment 1 to this report. 

In June 2019, City staff initiated a study of the Weston (Phase 2) study area to determine whether it merited designation under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act (OHA). The study followed the Council-adopted Heritage Conservation Districts in Toronto: Procedures, Policies and Terms of Reference and used the Provincial criteria (updated in 2023) required to determine if a district is of cultural heritage value or interest.  

On January 1, 2023, the Province's proposed amendments to the OHA through the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 (Bill 23) came into effect. For Heritage Conservation Districts, per Regulation 569/22 of the OHA, at least 25 per cent of the properties within the defined area must satisfy two or more of the nine criteria for determining cultural heritage value or interest. City staff have determined that the Weston (Phase 2) study area consisting of 254 properties does not meet the minimum threshold of 25 per cent of the properties meeting two or more of the nine criteria for determining cultural heritage value or interest, and therefore does not meet the Provincial criteria for determining a district's cultural heritage values.

Although City staff have concluded that the Weston (Phase 2) study area does not merit conservation through an HCD Plan, staff identified 20 properties that merit further research and evaluation to determine their cultural heritage value or interest as identified in Attachment 7 – Properties Recommended for Further Research and Evaluation. These properties were all constructed prior to 1910 and are contextually related to the early development history of the former Village of Weston. All the properties also have design or physical value as rare, unique, representative or early examples of an architectural style, and some have historical or associative value for their associations with a prominent former resident of Weston.