Note: This article was updated to include comments from the Grand River Conservation Authority, which owns the property.
The city is about to lose another publicly-owned heritage property due to what one councillor calls “demolition by neglect.”
City council removed the circa. 1840 stone farmhouse at 797 Victoria Rd. N. – known as the Shortreed Farmhouse – from the municipal registry of cultural heritage properties on Monday evening and gave a green light to tear it down out of a concern for safety.
“The sequence of events that led to demolition of this property were entirely avoidable,” Coun. Leanne Caron told GuelphToday after the meeting. “We have seen this demolition by neglect … play itself out over and over and over again.
“I get very frustrated when it just keeps happening.”
The property is currently owned by the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA). It was built by George Shortreed, who once served a term as reeve of Wellington County, and aquired by the GRCA in 1973.
According to the municipal registry, the house was constructed in a neo-classic vernacular style and includes several features of heritage significance.
Currently, the building appears to be secured with mesh metal coverings bolted over all ground-level doors and windows, which are also boarded up. Broken glass can be seen in various locations around the house, which is surrounded by overgrown vegetation.
Reference was made during Monday's council meeting to the interior being filled with combustible materials, which is part of what makes up the stated safety concern.
The house was rented out through the GRCA’s residential tenancy program until 2016 when the program was cancelled and has sat vacant since 2017, explained Lisa Stocco, the conservation authority’s manager of strategic communications and environmental education, in an email.
“Trespassing, break-ins and vandalism have been an ongoing issue,” she said, noting two associated structures on the property have been burned down this year. “There has been evidence of fire incidents in and around the remaining farmhouse.
"The GRCA and the City of Guelph Fire Department have shared concerns regarding the safety of the public, GRCA staff and first responders, as well as the surrounding forested area."
Caron said she’s been sounding alarm bells about the property for years and believes the building could have been saved had the GRCA taken steps to maintain it or the city’s property standards bylaw been enforced.
Following more than 90-minutes of closed door discussions about the property on Monday evening, council ordered the building to be carefully dismantled, with efforts taken to salvage all granite and limestone from the exterior walls, as well as various wooden features inside.
The stone is to be stored by the city, while the wood is to be preserved for possible use by the owner or a future purchaser.
The motion passed in an 8-5 vote, with councillors Caron, Mike Salisbury, Bob Bell, Cathy Downer and James Gordon in opposition.
“I am holding my nose when it comes to voting in favour of this,” commented Mayor Cam Guthrie of the demolition approval. “It is the only alternative that is really in front of us that can actually be acted upon.”
While aspects of council’s discussion were rightfully held behind closed doors, some of it should have happened in open session, Caron maintains.
“Our process has not allowed the public to weigh in on this very serious matter,” she said during the council meeting. “We owe it to the public to take our heritage seriously.”
The councillor is calling for the city’s property standards bylaw to be proactively enforced when it comes to properties at risk such as the Shortreed Farmhouse. In general bylaws are enforced on a complaint basis, but she feels that’s not good enough.
“Is council culpable here? Absolutely,” she said. “We need to, as a council, give our staff more tools and more resources in order for us to rise to the vision of our heritage goals.”
