Heritage districts aim to preserve unique neighbourhoods, not handcuff homeowners, advocate says

A second Winnipeg neighbourhood is being considered for designation as a heritage conservation district — a relatively new concept for the city, but one that's already prevalent in other Canadian municipalities.

The idea of heritage conservation districts, or HCDs, has already sparked controversy here, though.

In April, Armstrong's Point became Winnipeg's first neighbourhood to achieve the status, which aims to preserve "the character and look of a neighbourhood," the City of Winnipeg's website says, by placing controls on development in the area. 

"This typically means policies on building alterations or demolitions, infill construction, and setbacks," the city's website says.

The Crescentwood area is next in line to hear if it will receive the designation, after it was nominated in June.

The potential designation became controversial when the city stepped in to stop a property owner's plan to demolish a century-old mansion in the neighbourhood to make way for a new multi-family development.

"You have a multi-million dollar development being held up — after you've issued a building permit, after we've been seven weeks in demolition, and then you say stop," Jamie Kagan, a laywer for the owners of 514 Wellington Cres., said following the city's decision earlier this month.

Another property owner and developer recently told the city's property, planning and development committee that he and his company have become "collateral damage" in the effort to nominate Crescentwood as a heritage conservation district.

The owners of 514 Wellington now plan to take the city to court, as a group in the neighbourhood moves forward with plans for the designation.

Christine Skene is on the heritage conservation committee for Crescentwood and says the effort isn't necessarily against infill housing, but is more in favour of conserving of what's already there.

"It's intelligent change, I'd like to think, and some of the changes in our neighbourhood demonstrate that if we don't have guidelines, that's not going to happen," Skene said.

She said there have been a couple of instances in the neighbourhood where character homes have been demolished in order to build large, modern homes that don't fit with the esthetic of the area.

"People that live in the neighbourhood are looking forward to knowing that what's across the street is going to be what's across the street," she said.

While the heritage designation process has just begun for Crescentwood and is expected to take months or years to complete, the plan is to follow the same guidelines adopted by Armstrong's Point.

"There's a whole process of public meetings and time for people to ask their questions and express their feelings," Skene said.

The city's Glenwood neighbourhood has also begun the heritage designation process, and there is interest in designating the Exchange District and Point Douglas areas as well.

What is an HCD?

According to a city report on identifying and prioritizing heritage conservation districts, the purpose is not to prevent development or regulate how land is used — as regular zoning laws would stay the same — but rather to create a set of guidelines that developers and homeowners would need to follow.

Cindy Tugwell, executive director of the non-profit Heritage Winnipeg, says the city's lack of guidelines for infill housing is forcing some older neighbourhoods to seek heritage designation to protect what they have.

"Winnipeg does not have a proper infill strategy right now," she said.

"[HCD designation] collectively would look after and protect the whole area, including landscape, streetscaping — all of the things that are part of the neighbourhood."

It's more efficient, she says, to designate an entire neighbourhood than to try to protect individual homes.

Protected elements would include things like how far from the street a house can be, the footprint of the house on a lot, architectural elements that are visible to the neighbourhood, and landscaping elements like trees and the amount of green space on each property.

The protected elements rarely affect the interior of a home or its backyard.

Tugwell said it's important for people to understand the idea isn't to handcuff homeowners, but to protect the collective value of the neighbourhood.

"Heritage designation does not restrict what you can do," Tugwell said. "What it asks you to do is be sympathetic to the character-defining elements of whatever property you have."

What those defining elements are is up to each individual neighbourhood that applies for protection. 

"Each HCD in Winnipeg will have a HCD plan that is unique to that area," the city's website says.

"The HCD plan will outline the elements of the area that property owners have indicated are valuable — the things that give the area its unique look and feel."

Heritage permits an added cost

Any changes to those protected elements would be subject to review by the city's heritage planner.

"If you ever wanted to put vinyl siding over a beautiful brick home, absolutely it would handcuff you," Tugwell said.

"But the whole idea is, my goodness — why would you want to?"

The city says homeowners within heritage districts will need to apply for permits, just like any other homeowners in the city, when making changes to their properties.

But if they plan to change or upgrade any of the protected elements, they will be required to get a heritage permit on top of the regular building permits.

That would also apply to repairs and maintenance of existing features.

"Any repair or restoration work to a character-defining element requires a heritage permit to ensure that the element is properly conserved," a city spokesperson said.

Those permits, according to a fee list on the city's website, begin at $293 plus GST and range up to $780 for a rehabilitation or a new addition — and that's on top of the regular building permits required.

Tugwell said heritage grants could be available to homeowners within heritage districts to help offset the costs of preserving certain elements.

She said she's encouraging the city to be flexible and work with homeowners to make the process as smooth as possible.

"You would tell [the city's heritage planner] what you were going to do, and as long as it really doesn't affect the exterior in a really immense way, in a negative way, most of the homeowners will not have to worry about the work that they're doing."

Protections apply to neighbourhoods

She also said heritage district designations don't prevent homes from being torn down, but add an extra layer of protection before that decision is made.

If a home in a district does get demolished, the guidelines help determine what kind of building can go up in its place.

"That was a real previous fear of the residents [in Crescentwood], is that new homes were going up at an alarming rate and the design just didn't fit into the character of the neighbourhood."

The city said being given the designation does not impact property taxes or change assessed values, but Tugwell said in other cities where they've been put in place, the designations have had a positive effect on the market.

The key to implementing the districts, she said, is making sure people living in the area are on board and understand what it means.

"It is not a negative thing to have an HCD," she said.

"It really is saying, 'Wow, you've got a historic gem and we recognize you have a historic gem, and we want to help you as a community … be able to make decisions to protect it."