Julia Rady

The applicant appealed the municipality’s non-decisions on official plan and zoning amendments and also challenged notices of intention to designate and refusals of demolition permits for two heritage dwellings on a greyfield main street site proposed for mixed-use intensification.

The Tribunal held that planning policy at the provincial, regional and local levels supported medium-scale intensification on the site, but that heritage policy and the evidence required retention of both dwellings in substantial form rather than demolition or near-total removal with commemoration.

The Tribunal preferred the municipal heritage evidence that the houses function as visual touchstones in a broader historic streetscape tied to fruit-farming history and that demolition should remain a last resort.

It therefore recommended designation of both properties, denied the demolition relief as sought, and allowed the planning appeals in part by approving the official plan and zoning amendments in principle subject to redesign consistent with the heritage findings.