— passed through the Ontario legislature last week, the clock started ticking for staff in the heritage planning division at Toronto city hall.The city had, as of mid-November, 11,009 properties listed on the. Under changes made to the Ontario Heritage Act by the new legislation, 3,973 of them are now subject to removal after about two years.
Listing, on the other hand, is kind of like Diet Designation. Properties that are listed only have the requirement that the property owner give council at least 60 days of notice before they call in a demolition crew to start smashing stuff with crowbars. In Toronto, this will apply to all 3,973 listed properties on Toronto’s heritage register. If they’re not designated within two years, they’re off the list and can’t go back on for five years. Properties that are listed, but not designated, on the register include dozens of notable Toonto buildings.at 667 King West, which dates back to 1849, and is frequently proclaimed Toronto’s oldest bar. There’s Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto.
Then there’s the 184-foot flagpole at Exhibition Place, the boardwalk that stretches across the water in the Beaches neighbourhood, and the statue of Ned Hanlan in very tight shorts that greets beach-goers as they exit the Toronto Island ferry — all listed, but not designated. But the new legislation represents an enormous challenge for city hall, triggering a need to sift through nearly 4,000 addresses to find the gems that Toronto really wants to keep.It’s no coincidence that the changes to the OHA in Bill 23 comes on the heels of a sharp increase in the number of properties being listed as heritage in Toronto.