MEETING PREVIEW: Heritage Guelph Meeting for January 23, 2023

With the new year, Heritage Guelph is now officially under the proverbial gun thanks to changes in Bill 23 and the ongoing efforts to preserve the Ontario Reformatory Lands in the east end. Both of these items will be front and centre at this month’s Heritage Guelph committee meeting as the people in charge of protecting Guelph’s old places face some new challenges.

NOTE: This meeting takes place virtually at 12 pm on Cisco Webex. Follow the link on the Heritage Guelph agenda for this meeting.

Heritage Guelph Meeting Schedule – This is pretty straightforward. The meetings will continue on Monday for the year, and, more interestingly, they will continue on Webex. See the list of future meeting dates here.

Ontario Reformatory HCD Study Workshop #3: Phase 1 Study Recommendation – In this third workshop, Heritage Guelph will look at Phase 1 of the study and the recommend proposed boundary for the future Heritage Conservation District. Some of this was revealed to the public back in September, which included a map that showed some portions of the property that might not be included in the final boundaries of the HCD. The only materials available in the report where from the previous two workshops on the OR Lands district study so it seems likely those materials will be made available in the amended agenda.

Bill 23 Implementation Update – January 1, 2025. That’s when all non-designated properties will be pulled from the Heritage Register, and by the way, council is no longer required to consult with the local heritage committee before pulling a non-designated property from the list. Those are two of the changes initiated for heritage in Bill 23, and heritage planner Jack Mallon will give the committee a break down of how these changes will affect heritage work in the city.

Update on Part IV Designation Reports – Heritage Planner Victoria Nagy will make the presentation, which is technically under the “Chair and Staff Announcements” portion of the meeting, but no reports or materials were available in the initial release of the agenda.