New Westminster city council could have more clarity about heritage revitalization agreements in the Queen’s Park neighbourhood this fall.
In June 2021, city council voted 5-2 to temporarily suspend heritage revitalization agreement (HRA) applications in the Queen’s Park heritage conservation area, excluding those that had been received by the city before the motion was approved on June 21.
Then-mayor Jonathan Cote put forward the motion because of concerns that the city’s HRA policies and guidelines had been developed before the Queen’s Park heritage conservation area was created in 2017. He said that made it “challenging” for council to evaluate the benefits of supporting heritage revitalization agreements in Queen’s Park compared to other neighbourhoods, where that level of heritage protection doesn’t exist.
“How do we evaluate that from another area that doesn’t have a heritage conservation area to really kind of determine what the appropriate benefit or corresponding benefit should be?” he said at the time. “From my perspective, I do think this is actually a policy gap that we do have that does need to be looked at to ensure that we are getting the level of heritage benefit for an HRA for the level of benefit that we are giving.”
The city’s website explains that a heritage revitalization agreement is a form of long-term, legal protection of a home that’s 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.
On July 10, New Westminster city council received a report about a proposed HRA in Queensborough – one that could result in the long-term protection of a tree. It would be the first tree in New Westminster to be protected through an HRA.
At Monday’s meeting, Coun. Nadine Nakagawa noted there’s still a freeze on HRA applications in the Queen’s Park neighbourhood and questioned when the requested staff report would be coming to council. She said council had expected that report last summer.
“That’s on our work plan to come back this fall,” said Jackie Teed, the city’s acting director of climate action, planning and development.
When putting forward his motion, the former mayor recommended the city pause the consideration of new HRA applications in Queen’s Park until the city put some policies in place, saying council, residents and applicants would all benefit by having better clarity on the use of HRAs in that neighbourhood.
At that time, Nakagawa supported the motion but said she had mixed feeling about freezing HRA applications in Queen’s Park because she didn’t want the process to drag on. Then-councillor and now-mayor Patrick Johnstone was one of two councillors who opposed the freeze on HRA applications in Queen’s Park, saying it wasn’t in the spirit of what had been discussed when council considered and approved the Queen’s Park heritage conservation area.
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