After lengthy debate and several delegation presentations, St. Catharines City Council voted to quash the idea of creating a Downtown Heritage Conservation District.
Property owners were particularly vocal in opposing the creation of such a district, as was the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce.
The plan would have given blanket protection to more than 100 buildings from potential demolition, but it would have given those properties those protections regardless of whether the property owners wanted that designation.
It was that issue that made Mayor Mat Siscoe come out against the proposal.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that I think it’s just wrong to designate against the wishes of an owner,” said Siscoe after presentations from multiple delegations and after other members of Council had weighed in.
“We have designated in the downtown in the past, we have designated with consent, I think those have been very successful properties,” added Siscoe.
By contrast, Siscoe noted that in the past, the City has also designated properties as heritage properties without the consent of the owners, and he suggested that such an approach had not been successful.
“A couple of years ago, we went through the process of adding properties to the heritage registry without consent – we did it against the wishes of a lot of residents – and I don’t think it was very successful.”
Siscoe added that there haven’t been many property owners from the proposed heritage district that have come forward seeking to have their properties designated as such. He also worried about infringing on the property rights of those owners and whether a blanket heritage designation would lead property owners to take their case to the Ontario Land Tribunal.
Going forward now, insisted Siscoe, would be a “self-inflicted wound.”
Owners of the properties that would potentially be designated as heritage sites worried about increased costs, particularly with respect to insurance, and increased difficulty selling their properties in the future.
The issue was facing Council because back in 2023 Council voted overwhelmingly to hire a consultant to study the issue of creating a downtown heritage district.
By contrast, when it came time for a final vote on whether to proceed, Council voted 7-4 against creating a heritage district.
As somewhat of a compromise, Council voted for a motion put forward by Councillor Joe Kushner (Ward 2) and Councillor Matt Harris (Ward 2) to create a citizen Downtown Heritage Conservation Advisory Committee to look at ways to help preserve the downtown core without going forward with a blanket heritage designation.
Jay Goldberg is the Canadian Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center. He previously served as the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
