Item - 2025.PB30.2

The Toronto Preservation Board recommends that:

1. City Council include 78 and 80 Nassau Street on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register in accordance with the Listing Statement (Reasons for Inclusion) attached as Attachment 1 to the report (March 14, 2025) from the Senior Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning.

Gary Miedema, Project Manager, Policy and Research, Urban Design, City Planning gave a presentation on 78 and 80 Nassau Street - Inclusion on the Heritage Register.

This report recommends that City Council include 78 and 80 Nassau Street on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register for their cultural heritage value and interest according to the Listing Statement (Reasons for Inclusion) found in Attachment 1.

The properties at 78 and 80 Nassau Street are a semi-detached pair of house-form buildings located on the north side of Nassau Street between Augusta Avenue and Bellevue Avenue, in the Kensington-Chinatown neighbourhood. A location map and current photograph of the heritage properties is found in Attachment 1.

Constructed c.1885, the properties at 78 and 80 Nassau Street are part of the collection of properties in Kensington Market that reflect modifications made by new generations and new immigrant communities, while retaining their Victorian and early twentieth-century character. The properties were identified as contributing properties in the Kensington Market Heritage Conservation District (HCD) Plan, which was adopted by City Council on February 5, 2025. At the time of writing this report, the properties do not yet have protection under the Ontario Heritage Act. A designation under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act does not come into force until the 30-day notice of by-law period has ended and all appeals have been resolved, if applicable.

The properties at 78 and 80 Nassau Street 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 (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 (HIA) are required for development applications that affect listed properties.