Queen’s Park residents will have to wait a while longer before they know the city’s plans for addressing heritage projects in their neighbourhood.
In July 2021, council voted 5-2 in favour of a motion by then-mayor Jonathan Cote to temporarily suspend heritage revitalization agreement (HRA) applications in the Queen’s Park heritage conservation area until the city puts some policies in place. At the time, Cote said it was “challenging” for council to evaluate the benefits of heritage revitalization agreements in Queen’s Park compared to neighbourhoods where the level of heritage protection offered in the conservation area doesn’t exist.
But some Queen’s Park residents have been left in limbo, while they wait for the city to develop policy around heritage revitalization agreements in the Queen’s Park heritage conservation area.
In a letter to the Record, Queen’s Park residents Perry and Caroline Roussy said they were addressing all the required key points prior to making a formal submission and staff were fully aware of their incoming application when council put HRA applications on hold.
“Entering into this process we were warned this was not an undertaking for the faint of heart. The financial outlay, the city-required upgrades, modifications to the existing home and of course being beaten down by community members who object,” they wrote. “Now we’ve reached a whole other level of stress we never saw coming.”
The couple said their HRA application would create an infill house, with a legal suite and existing two-car garage. They said they’ve written to council asking when the city will “unfreeze” the HRA program in Queen’s Park.
“It's been almost two years,” they wrote in a letter to the Record.
The Record put that question to Jackie Teed, the city’s acting director of climate action, planning and development.
“Once council has completed their strategic plan, staff will prepare work plans in alignment with it, and identify timelines for projects that will advance in the next four years,” she said in an email to the Record.
At a recent meeting, council members were told that they’d be considering the strategic plan in April.
Why the freeze?
A heritage revitalization agreement is a type of long-term, legal protection on a home that’s been negotiated between a property owner and the city. In exchange for retention of a heritage building and some restoration work, an HRA allows the city to supersede local zoning regulations and provide non-financial incentives that would make it viable for the applicant to conserve the property.
In July 2021, a majority of council supported the motion to pause the acceptance of new HRA applications in Queen’s Park – saying it’s challenging to evaluate the benefits the city is receiving for approving HRAs in that area compare to other neighbourhoods that don’t have a conservation area.
At that time, Coun. Jaimie McEvoy said that, without having that policy in place, council had been making ad-hoc decisions on applications – leaving some to question if those heritage revitalization agreements were achieving a heritage benefit for the Queen’s Park neighbourhood.
Coun. Nadine Nakagawa said she had mixed feeling about freezing HRA applications in Queen’s Park and noted she didn’t want the process to drag on. Then-councillors Mary Trentadue and Patrick Johnstone (now mayor) voted against the motion, saying they support increased density and more housing choice in single-family neighbourhoods.
📣 SOUND OFF: Should New Westminster carry on with a “pause” on heritage revitalization agreement applications in Queen’s Park until a policy is in place to ensure the neighbourhood is benefiting from the projects or is it time to accept applications? Send us a letter.
