Item - 2026.PB41.4

The Toronto Preservation Board recommends that:

1. City Council identify the properties listed in Attachment 2 to the report (February 25, 2026) from the Senior Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning, as having potential cultural heritage value or interest, as identified through the Bloor-Yorkville Cultural Heritage Resource Assessment study.

2. City Council direct the Senior Manager, Heritage Planning to undertake all necessary steps, including community consultation, to determine whether the Yorkville Village Core, or a part thereof, merits authorization for study as a potential Heritage Conservation District under Section 40(1) of the Ontario Heritage Act on the potential to authorize this study and to report back to the Toronto Preservation Board in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Gary Miedema, Project Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning gave a presentation on Bloor-Yorkville Cultural Heritage Resource Assessment.

This report summarizes the findings of the Bloor-Yorkville Cultural Heritage Resource Assessment (CHRA). Staff recommend that Council adopt the list of identified properties with potential cultural heritage value or interest in Attachment 2. Staff also recommend that Council direct staff to review a portion of the Yorkville Village Core to determine if the area, or a part thereof, merits Council’s authorization of a Heritage Conservation District study under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act.  

In April 2017, Council directed the Director, Community Planning, Toronto and East York District to prepare a new Site and Area Specific Policy for the Bloor-Yorkville Area. In early 2021, City Planning initiated the Bloor-Yorkville Secondary Plan Study, inclusive of a Cultural Heritage Resource Assessment (CHRA). A CHRA documents and analyzes an area’s development history to identify properties with potential cultural heritage value and to make heritage conservation recommendations.

A Historic Context Statement (HCS) is produced within the CHRA to explain the area’s contemporary form and character. The HCS identifies significant periods of historical evolution, analyzes key themes, studies individual properties in relation to themes and historic periods and considers the relationship of properties to one another and their context, to inform the identification of buildings and landscapes with potential cultural heritage value.

In February 2021, Heritage Planning staff and a consultant team, Common Bond Collective, initiated the CHRA, which included community engagement within the Secondary Plan study and through a Heritage Focus Group. In the fall of 2022, the Secondary Plan study was put on hold, and the related CHRA was paused.

On June 19, 2024, Official Plan Amendment 720 came into effect City-wide, which among other matters, established the requirement for a Cultural Heritage Evaluation Report (CHER) under Schedule 3 of the Official Plan for Official Plan Amendments, Zoning By-law Amendments and Plan of Subdivision applications where a property has been adopted by City Council through a City-led study as having potential cultural heritage value or interest, but which is not included on the Heritage Register.

As the Provincial Planning Policy (PPS 2024) Policy 4.6.4(b) encourages planning authorities to develop and implement proactive strategies for conserving significant built heritage resources and cultural heritage landscapes, Heritage Planning along with its consultants re-activated the CHRA in summer 2025 and completed the final report in December 2025.

This report presents the methodology and results of the City-led Bloor-Yorkville CHRA consultant study and provides staff recommendations, including the identification of 88 properties with potential cultural heritage value and the potential to authorize a study of a portion of the Yorkville Village Core as a potential Heritage Conservation District. The CHRA also identified the need for city staff to continue Indigenous engagement within the study area to identify places that hold cultural heritage value for Indigenous communities.