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Mono formally removes property from heritage list

August 22, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

At the behest of the owner and with the agreement of town council, a Mono property has been removed from the municipal heritage register.

Despite the objection of Councillor Elaine Capes, council formally decided to remove the property at 994192 Mono-Adjala Townline from the town’s heritage register at the request of the owner. The property dates back to 1876.

Council approved during the previous meeting to remove the property from the heritage list. Council adopted the bylaw during its Aug. 20 meeting that formally removes the property from the registry.

Capes, who is a member of council’s heritage advisory committee, maintained that the property should remain registered as a heritage property, despite it being a financial obstacle for the property owner.

“Recently there has been some report in the Orangeville Citizen,” Capes said. “It was very negative. There is no talk of the value of preserving our cultural heritage. And anyone who is British or who has lived in the (United Kingdom) would wholeheartedly embrace heritage.

“Withstanding that Canada is young in terms of its settled history, we may not have the same appreciation of recognizing our heritage, culture, and the value of what some of that means.”

The Ontario Heritage Act requires the clerk of every municipality to keep a publicly accessible register of properties that are of cultural heritage, value, or interest situated in the municipality.

“Further, this also allows the municipality to include properties of cultural heritage value or interest that have not been designated in its municipal register,” Capes said.

The municipal register is an important tool in planning for the conservation of heritage properties, she said. It provides interim protection from demolition.

There is no legislated obligation to engage with the property owner.

“Just to make that clear,” Capes said. “There are lots of reasons why we list our properties and register them to protect them, and why we then carry forward with designation.

“This is important to preserving the story about what Mono is, who Mono is, and what we value.”

Coun. Melinda Davie said she wasn’t surprised by Capes’ comments.

“Were you able to watch the very fulsome discussion that happened?” Davie said.

“I am going to say no, but I was part of the previous discussions,” Capes said.

“So it’s a bind that the council found themselves in,” Davie said. “We had a very good report from our heritage committee indicating that this should stay on the registry and that for future designation possibly.”

Davie said council also had to consider the wishes of the property owner, to whom council is responsible. That property owner, Cathy Cavallo, stated during the July meeting that her objection was due to the inability to secure a mortgage with a preferred vendor. The owner’s mortgage agent also confirmed that.

Davie said Cavallo seemed to feel in great jeopardy.

“And I don’t think it was hyperbolic,” Davie said. “In jeopardy of losing her property.”

The legislation allows that, if a property is taken off the registry, designating the property can be revisited in the future.

“That was why we came to it (the decision),” Davie said. “Not because we do not appreciate (heritage) or that this was a decision taken lightly.”

Should Cavallo wish to sell the property, the heritage designation could make it difficult for prospective buyers to get a mortgage.

Coun. Ralph Manktelow said the 994192 Mono-Adjala Townline property is an excellent parcel for heritage status. But the property owner made a convincing argument financially.

“And council felt this was valid and, on that basis, elected to agree to have the property removed and I continue to support that,” Manktelow said.

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