Item - 2025.PB27.3

The Toronto Preservation Board recommends that:

1.  City Council state its intention to designate the property at 1660 Kingston Road under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act in accordance with the Statement of Significance for 1660 Kingston Road (Reasons for Designation) attached as Attachment 1, to the report (January 20, 2025) from the Senior Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning.

2.  If there are no objections to the designation, City Council authorize the City Solicitor to introduce the Bill in Council designating the property under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Clint Robertson, Planner, Policy and Research, Urban Design, City Planning gave a presentation on 1660 Kingston Road - Notice of Intention to Designate a Property under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.

This report recommends that City Council state its intention to designate the property at 1660 Kingston Road under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for its cultural heritage value according to the Statement of Significance and description of heritage attributes found in Attachment 1.

The subject property at 1660 Kingston Road is located on the north side of Kingston Road between Birchcliff Avenue and Birchmount Road in the Birch Cliff - Cliffside neighbourhood of Scarborough. A location map and current photograph of the heritage property is found in Attachment 2.

The property at 1660 Kingston Road, built 1921- 1922, comprises a two-storey, brick-clad and stone-detailed building designed in the Neoclassical style that was constructed for the Bank of Commerce and operated as a local branch to the Birch Cliff community for eighty years until 2003. The building has significant historical value for its institutional role of municipal governance for the Township of Scarborough. For over a quarter century, from 1922 - 1949, the second floor of the former Bank of Commerce  served as the seat of the Scarborough township council and offices of municipal departments, including Assessment and Building Inspector from the 1930s to the mid 1940s. Adjacent to the Birch Cliff Public School (1916) and with its corner location, the property is a prominent component of the Birch Cliff community that anchors an intact early-20th century streetscape of a historic main street on Kingston Road.

Staff have determined that the property at 1660 Kingston Road has cultural heritage value and meets five of the Ontario Regulation 9/06 criteria prescribed for municipal designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act. A property may be designated under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, if it meets two or more of the nine criteria.

The subject property was listed on the City's Heritage Register on September 27, 2006, and has been identified as a candidate for designation through the City's implementation of Bill 23 amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act, and the strategy for Listed Properties that must be removed from the Register by January 1, 2027.