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Ottawa Community Housing has two months to come up with alternatives to demolishing a heritage house it owns in Lowertown.
The social housing agency arrived Monday at a meeting of the city’s built heritage subcommittee expecting to hear a decision on its proposal to demolish the brick house at 171 Bruyère Street and use the land for a parkette. OCH argues that correcting all of house’s shortcomings would cost between $250,000 and $300,000, and even then, accessibility would still be an issue.
The demolition and parkette would cost between $125,000 and $150,000.
The neighbours have no objection to demolishing the house, which has been empty for about two years — although many would prefer a community garden — but city staff oppose the idea. Demolishing a city-owned building in the Lowertown West Conservations District doesn’t set a good example when other institutions including the school board, the University of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission can’t do the same thing, said architect Barry Padolsky, who is a member of the subcommittee.
“If a private sector person came forward, we’d expect them to preserve it,” said Sandy Smallwood, another member. He asked if leaving the house to deteriorate would constitute “demolition by neglect.”
Others said similar problems with heritage houses have not been insurmountable. “Buildings in much worse shape have been successfully restored,” said Liz MacKenzie, co-chair of the heritage committee of the Lowertown Community Association. “Humble buildings like this contribute to the streetscape.”
An existing parkette is already “a magnet for all kinds of illegal activities,” said MacKenzie, and she doesn’t want to see another one added to the neighbourhood.
Only a handful of Ottawa Community Housing’s 1,500 units fit into the heritage category, said executive director of asset management Cliff Youdale. The agency is caught in a bind in this situation— it wants to respect the heritage district, but there is an “opportunity cost” to investing large amounts of money in one house when would cost about $125,000 to built a new single-family home for tenants.
“We felt that the parkette was a reasonable compromise,” he said.
The agency will now see if it can sever the lot and sell the house. But this is complicated as well — the mortgage for the house is part of a bundle of 30-year mortgages and it’s unclear if it can be extricated from that agreement to be sold, said Youdale.
The question will return to the built heritage subcommittee on Jan. 14.
jlaucius@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
The social housing agency arrived Monday at a meeting of the city’s built heritage subcommittee expecting to hear a decision on its proposal to demolish the brick house at 171 Bruyère Street and use the land for a parkette. OCH argues that correcting all of house’s shortcomings would cost between $250,000 and $300,000, and even then, accessibility would still be an issue.
The demolition and parkette would cost between $125,000 and $150,000.
The neighbours have no objection to demolishing the house, which has been empty for about two years — although many would prefer a community garden — but city staff oppose the idea. Demolishing a city-owned building in the Lowertown West Conservations District doesn’t set a good example when other institutions including the school board, the University of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission can’t do the same thing, said architect Barry Padolsky, who is a member of the subcommittee.
“If a private sector person came forward, we’d expect them to preserve it,” said Sandy Smallwood, another member. He asked if leaving the house to deteriorate would constitute “demolition by neglect.”
Others said similar problems with heritage houses have not been insurmountable. “Buildings in much worse shape have been successfully restored,” said Liz MacKenzie, co-chair of the heritage committee of the Lowertown Community Association. “Humble buildings like this contribute to the streetscape.”
An existing parkette is already “a magnet for all kinds of illegal activities,” said MacKenzie, and she doesn’t want to see another one added to the neighbourhood.
Only a handful of Ottawa Community Housing’s 1,500 units fit into the heritage category, said executive director of asset management Cliff Youdale. The agency is caught in a bind in this situation— it wants to respect the heritage district, but there is an “opportunity cost” to investing large amounts of money in one house when would cost about $125,000 to built a new single-family home for tenants.
“We felt that the parkette was a reasonable compromise,” he said.
The agency will now see if it can sever the lot and sell the house. But this is complicated as well — the mortgage for the house is part of a bundle of 30-year mortgages and it’s unclear if it can be extricated from that agreement to be sold, said Youdale.
The question will return to the built heritage subcommittee on Jan. 14.
jlaucius@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
