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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14,1988, PAGE 7 PAGE SEVEN I ~ ANOTIHER ONE BITES THE DUST To preserve buildings of architectural and historical signi- ficance and encourage their rehabilitation where necessary. Objective 2.4, Downtown Whitby Secondary Plan Remember McNeil's Furniture on Dundas St. E beside Beaver Lumber? Well, that's all that's left - the memory. Last Thursday, its new owner, Family Trust, had it demolished. Considering that Family Trust has occupied the historic old Dominion Bank building right at the four corners for many years, the company seemed to have a sensitivity to historic preservation but such was obviously not the case. Is the Dominion Bank building next on the hit list? Rarely has the need to protect our heritage buildings been more evident. Our choice is straight forward. Do we as a community control its character through effective planning or do we leave its destiny in the hands of land owners whose image of this Town is etched in dollar signs. In the last few months I have been looking for larger premises for the Free Press and because of my interest in heritage preservation I have focused on historic buildings. When you get down to specific cases, the bold statement of intent quoted at the beginning of this column is empty. Our present administration is unwilling to give priority to any proposal which would in fact preserve a heritage building. Whitby's planning by-laws both now and in their revised forms will doom most of the remaining heritage buildings. Planning is done on a block by block basis, but within many of those blocks are one or two older buildings whose potential for preservation is lost in the overall scheme. A case in point is 133 Perry St. just up the street from the Post Office and across the street from the Town's largest parking lot. The house is empty and is owned by a real estate agent who is holding it for purely speculative reasons. The front porch alone with its fine spindle work makes it worth preserving but its interior of finely grained woodwork is remarkable. It is presently zoned residential but not surpri- singly nobody wants to move their family to such a busy location. Under the new secondary plan, which is still stalled before Regional Council, the property is zoned for mixed use - high density residential with an up to one-third commercial component on the ground floor. Full commercial conversion of the property, as I would have wanted to do, is only permitted if confined entirely to the existing building (approx 2,000 sq. ft. - inadequate for my purposes.) With the secondary plan well on the way to implementation, this property is already priced at a level which reflects the higher density which will be allowed. To make preservation a paying proposition will require a greater degree of flexibility. A second case is 506 Brock St. S., a frame house with an exceptionally well-preserved exterior and an asking price of $329,000. An application to rezone this and the neighbouring property to commercial led to the Brock Street corridor study which concluded that the residential character of the block should be preserved but that commercial uses would be permitted within closely defined limits. With a maximum allowable floorspace of 3750 sq. ft at a cost of at least $400,000 (including acquistion, restoration, and an extension) a newspaper.,office was unworkable. The clincher, though, with both of these buildings was the time element. Each would have required a rezoning application - four months to a year to maybe get permission to proceed. I couldn't wait that long. Another historic house at 404 Dundas St. W. would not have· that problem - it is already zoned commercial ...and expensive. At $600,000 and only limited space for expansion in the rear, it is almost certainly doomed. The value of that house is in its commercial zoning - a windfall created by the Town's own zoning by-laws - the Town has every right to modify that zoning in order to ensure this buildings preservation. Planners have to be sensitive to the fact that zoning can create market conditions which will preclude their fondest aspirations. Our planning department talks about district designation as its preferred course for preservation but admits that it will be a couple of years before they get around to it and even then they have no idea what boundaries they might consider or how it would be implemented. Meanwhile another historic building is gone. Under current laws, the municipality is unable to refuse a demolition permit but they can attach conditions. They could, for instance, require every demolition to pass tbrough a public review process at which alternatives could be explored. They could consider demolition only in the context of an overall plan for redevelopment and refuse demolition where no immediate alternate use for the property is proposed. Council could also enact a general amendmxent to tbe official plan to' allow them additional latitude on applications which include the preservation of historic buildings. Our politicians can spend tbeir time avoiding issues and making excuses or they can take a stand for better planning. The choice is yours. GERRIE'S BLOCK, NORTH-WEST CORNER OF BROCK AND DUNDAS STREETS C. 1888 This fine brick block of stores was named after James H. Gerrie, a druggist, when it was built in 1873, to replace the Gerrie store which burned two years earlier. It was covered with stucco in 1939. The corner store was a drug store from 1873 to 1969, operated by James H. Gerrie & Co., W.R. Howse and Arthur H. Allin. The sign on the wall says: 'Use Gray's Syrup of Red Spruce Gum for coughs and colds." The customs office for Whitby was located above the drug store. Whitby Archives photo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday,September 13, 1978 edition of the WHITBY FREE PRESS * Joy Thompson, a member of the Town Council since 1974, will not seek re-election. * Ontario Minister of Correctional Services Frank Drea stated the jail commumty work program is 99 per cent successful, at a Whitby Chamber of Commerce meeting. • Whitby CBC Builders lacrosse team lost its bid for the Minto Cup for the second year in succession. * Nearly 800 children attended the Durham Region YMCA's summer day camps. 25 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, September 12, 1963 edition of the WHITBY WEEKLY NEWS (This issue is missing.) 100 YEARS AGO from the Friday, September 14, 1888 edition of the WHITBY CHRONICLE • Young boys have been stealing apples and pears in large quantities from orchards in Brooklin. • Electric lights will be a new feature at the Whitby fair grounds this month. • The Board of Education has hired C.H. Waldron as science master at the Collegiate Institute at a salary of $800 per year. • Principal James Brown reports 19 teachers are receiving training at the Whitby Model School. ý mm-