An historically significant three-storey tower is proposed to come down, with some aspects reused elsewhere on the property, in order to make way for new affordable housing units in the city’s west end.
City council allowed the plan for 50-60 Fife Rd. to take a step forward with an 11-2 vote during a special meeting on Wednesday evening, to the dismay of Heritage Guelph chair P. Brian Skerrett. The advisory group sought to have the full tower preserved. The rest of the house was not part of the preservation discussion Thursday.
The council-approved effort includes seeking formal heritage designation for the tower’s conical flat roof, slate shingles and wooden corbels, which would require their protection.
“The ideal would be to retain the entirety of the tower … but it may not be possible,” commented Melissa Aldunate, the city’s manager of policy planning and urban design.
The plan, as explained by Howard Kennedy of UpBuilding! Non-Profit Homes, which owns the site and provides a number of affordable housing units there, is to remove the heritage features and put them on display in a more prominent place on the property.
The tower and attached building, which contains five affordable housing units, are to be torn down in order to construct new buildings with 18 affordable units.
“We want to protect the heritage features, we just want to move them,” Kennedy told council, noting it would cost about $1 million to bring the building “back up to snuff” while the ew construction proposal is thought to cost about $3.5 million. “The math doesn’t really justify (saving the whole tower).”
Approval of a demolition permit is needed before the building can be taken down.
The tower and attached building used to be home for city mayor and county councillor, F.J. Chadwick (elected mayor in 1877), but has undergone a number of expansions and alterations through the years.
“It’s really an awful building,” said Kennedy. “You wouldn’t want any friends or even enemies living there.”
In opposition to the proposal were councillors Phil Allt and Leanne Caron.
“I feel like this is just another example of demolition by neglect,” said Caron. “I think there were alternatives over the last 30 years that were not explored.”
She’s concerned the preserved heritage features will lack context without the tower itself.
Allt said he’s worried the heritage features may be damaged during the moving process.
Mayor Cam Guthrie noted his preference would be for the tower, including its heritage features, to be simply “pushed over” and taken away.
“I really don’t care,” he said of the building being home to a previous mayor. “I see absolutely nothing here but hurdles in the way of turning five affordable housing units into 18.”
In a statement to GuelphToday following council’s decision, Skerrett said he’s at “a bit of a loss” to understand, noting the motion staff recommended to HG “argued for retention of the tower” and the committee agreed.
“Heritage Guelph never saw (the staff recommendation to council) and council wasn’t informed that Heritage Guelph had not seen it. I have never seen that happen before,” he wrote in an email. "The strangest part was the sense of déjà vu. Once again, council did not hear Heritage Guelph’s opinion on a staff recommendation.
“It may well be that the committee would have agreed with the mayor’s assessment that the building should be pushed over but we’ll never know now.”
