The Town of Newmarket is aiming to designate 53 new heritage properties in 2024 before a provincial deadline.
The town’s heritage committee is recommending the properties as worthy of heritage designation after staff and Archaeological Research Associates Ltd. narrowed down a list of hundreds of non-designated heritage properties following the province's move to place a Jan. 1, 2025 deadline for properties to be either removed from those lists or designated.
The list ranges from historic homes to institutions like Pickering College and St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. Planner Adrian Cammaert said staff worked hard to find a way to meet the timeline legislated in Bill 23.
“We were frankly trying to figure out a path forward,” he said to the town’s heritage committee March 19. “We have put together a detailed project plan, and we know exactly where we’re going, and we feel like we’re going to get there.”
The list prioritizes properties based on factors like the possibility of redevelopment. Other noteworthy properties up for designation include the Friends/Congregational Church on Botsford Street, the Davis Leather Factory, the Newmarket Cemetery House and former site of Water Works at 500 Water Street, soon to be home to Locale restaurant.
Heritage designations mean a property gets recognition, as well as protections from demolition or unsympathetic alteration to preserve heritage features, according to the province.
Staff plan to pursue designating these properties before the end of the year and have sent out notices, though they will prioritize some properties over others.
Committee member Pamela Vega said she had some concerns about the task of getting 53 properties handled.
“It’s a very ambitious number, and my fear is if we find we don’t have enough time at the end of the year, we aren’t able to designate all the properties we’re trying to designate, they’ll lose their protection, and I fear that’s a risk I don’t know if we want to take,” she said. “We have less than nine months.”
ARA Heritage project manager Amy Barnes said her team has planned ways to work efficiently to get the work on these properties done, using existing property files.
“We have been working on designation reports for quite some time,” she said. “I have come up with a pretty efficient system to guide the team in terms of process and timing.”
At the behest of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, the committee also voted to send a request to the province to extend the deadline from 2025 to 2026.
The motion expresses that meeting the 2025 deadline is difficult given the amount of work involved and that municipalities had effectively only two years to make it happen.
Although staff said they should be able to meet the 2025 deadline, committee chair Elaine Adam said it should not hurt to send the resolution.
“I see it as something that is really symbolic,” Adam said. “It supports the planning department and the work they’ve undergone because it really is a monumental thing.”
The full list of properties eyed for heritage designation is available through the municipal website.
