For the past few years the City of Toronto Planning Staff have been working with the local community of Yonge and Eglinton on a study called Midtown in Focus. An important component of the study has been to look at the heritage buildings on our main streets.
In August, Heritage Preservation Services released a report that has proposed to add 258 addresses on the Main Streets of Midtown as listings to the Heritage Registry. Approximately 70% of these addresses fall on the Main Streets of Yonge St, Mount Pleasant Rd, Bayview Ave, and Eglinton Ave in SERRA’s catchment south of Eglinton. The size and scope of the listings is unprecedented. After the surprise demolition of the BMO bank on Yonge St last winter, the City felt a need to take new proactive approach to screening for heritage properties. A heritage “listing” status is a first stage of heritage protection and is not as extensive as a “designation”. A heritage “listing” status will trigger an alert if a demolition permit is requested for a building on a main street. This alert system gives the City sixty days to determine a heritage designation.
The Heritage Preservation Services report has been approved by the Heritage Preservation Board, the Planning and Growth Committee, and finally by City Council on October 3, 2017.