Canada/Citizens want to make Beaverbrook a heritage conservation district

Kanata's Beaverbrook neighborhood may soon be designated a Heritage Conservation District, a process under discussion since 2014.

Kanata-Nord city councillor Cathy Curry says that when she moved from Toronto to Kanata in 1998, she was struck by the charm and character of the Beaverbrook neighbourhood.

I'd never seen anything like it before," she says.

The neighborhood was founded in the 1960s by Bill Teron, nicknamed the Father of Kanata.

According to longtime resident and local community association president Neil Thompson, the city approached the association as early as 2014 to discuss a possible heritage designation.

The subject has come up several times, particularly in connection with the preservation of the neighborhood's iconic hedgerows.

According to Cathy Curry, the process will also define the exact areas to be included in the designation and address residents' concerns.

It's the whole neighborhood that's unique and rare," adds Curry.

The association is working with the City of Ottawa and Councillor Curry's office to assess whether Beaverbrook meets the criteria of the Ontario Heritage Act.

According to Neil Thompson, a heritage district designation will allow the City to preserve certain features, such as old globe-shaped lampposts that might otherwise need to be modernized.

The City could also specify what homeowners are allowed to do, from removing a hedge to planting a vegetable garden.

However, the idea of designating the neighborhood as a heritage conservation district is not unanimously supported.

Certainly, if you mention the word heritage to a lot of people, they immediately assume that their house will be locked up, that they won't be able to do anything with it, and that the value of their property will go down," admits the president of the local association.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca/