By Bruce Bowden
In April, 2019, Susan Layard, co-chair of the ACO Port Hope Advocacy Committee, was invited to serve on a sub-committee of Heritage Port Hope, created to work on the creation of a Port Hope Heritage Register, an official list of both designated properties andI non-designated properties of cultural heritage interest. In November, 2021, the sub-committee submitted to the Municipality several spreadsheets containing detailed research on over 100 undesignated properties in Port Hope. In February, 2022, Municipal Planning Staff (at the time, Letourneau Heritage Consulting) presented a report to Heritage Port Hope on the status of the Heritage Listing Project. They have converted the list of designated Port Hope properties into a correctly formatted register which is now ready for presentation to Council. They have also prepared a Municipal Heritage Inventory which is a consolidation of all the potential properties of cultural heritage interest (found on various spreadsheets and evaluation sheets prepared by the Listing Subcommittee and others) that are being considered for listing.
Staff then made the following recommendations for next steps:
- The Municipal Heritage Register needs to be formally adopted through a resolution of Council.
- The Municipal Heritage Inventory needs to be reviewed for completeness and accuracy so that it can be used as the basis for creating shortlists of properties that will be evaluated according to the new OHA regulations and then presented to Council for addition to the Heritage Register as listings.
- The first shortlist needs to be approved by HPH and then evaluated according to the new Ontario Heritage Act before presentation to Council.
- In future, the Heritage Inventory needs to be continually assessed and updated, from which additional shortlists will be created for further evaluation before presentation to Council.
In March, 2022, HPH recommended that the Municipal Heritage Register be presented to Council for adoption through a resolution. The Inventory is being reviewed and the first shortlist has been drafted.