Robert Smythe
What is the fate of the city’s many heritage-designated buildings, which are being left to rot by noncompliant, uncooperative or absentee owners? It’s known as demolition by neglect.
For some time, the City of Ottawa has been maintaining an official Heritage Watch List of these historic properties at risk.
Citywide, there are over 30 listed addresses, most of which are in Sandy Hill and Lowertown.
Five buildings are in Somerset Ward:
- the notorious Somerset House on Bank Street,
- the former OBE administration building on Gilmour Street,
- Église Unie St-Marc on Elgin Street,
- a vacant house on James Street, and
- the seemingly abandoned Embassy of the Syrian Arabic Republic on Cartier Street.
On March 8, Ottawa’s Built Heritage Sub-Committee tabled an information update, generated by the city’s Right of Way, Heritage and Urban Design Department, on the status of its Heritage Watch List and the fairly limited actions that can be taken against hostile or uncommunicative owners of unoccupied heritage buildings.
The report states that the ultimate goal of the Heritage Watch List is to “ensure the conservation of important heritage resources and their adaptive reuse” if only to stabilize “interim conditions until development becomes feasible.”
While the city is about to impose a one percent special vacant residential building tax, four of our endangered buildings are institutional or commercial, to which this tax does not apply.
In 2016, the city’s Property Standards By-law was amended to include a section on designated buildings. The section tries to protect buildings’ unique “heritage attributes” by recommending such actions as boarding up windows and doors to prevent water damage and draining the plumbing and heating pipes in winter.
Enforcement cumbersome
Enforcement against any violation is slow and cumbersome, and amounts to issuing stiffly worded notices, which can be appealed by the owner.
After a lengthy process, fines could be levied but this is rarely done. Justices of the Peace have tended to sympathize with the private citizen, especially on a first violation.
Under the Building Code Act, in the case of an individual found guilty, on conviction a penalty of not more than $25,000 for a first offence and not more than $50,000 for any subsequent offence may be imposed. For corporations, these amounts can be increased to $50,000 and $100,000. The issuance of these fines in relation to heritage buildings is highly unusual. In the case of Somerset House, the case is still before the courts (see story below.)
One important step was taken when the City Of Ottawa instituted a regular interdepartmental team to monitor properties on the watch list with twice-yearly inspections and to note any precipitous changes in structural condition.
New powers from Heritage Act
As well, the new Ontario Heritage Act may give Ottawa some additional enforcement powers. A more detailed report on exactly what proactive measures can be taken before these buildings collapse (think of the Magee House disaster in Hintonburg) is expected this spring.
However, the province’s proposed legislation of shortcuts to issue building permits may also weaken its heritage provisions.
So far the city has preferred the positive approach through education by talking to owners and encouraging them to do the right thing, with three limited successes in Rockcliffe Park and a few rural barn and farmhouse cases.
Whether the city is prepared to escalate through drastic legal actions such as undertaking the necessary work of building stabilization itself and billing the costs back to the heritage property owner, or in extremely urgent cases proceeding with expropriation, remains unlikely.
But there is a faint possibility that we may see some beefier enforcement measures in the future.