heritage by Michael Seaman

The Importance of Remembering Anniversaries

We all know the importance of re­membering the birthday of a significant relative or friend, or our wedding anniver­saries. Although we appreciate our friends and relatives every day of the year, an anniversary provides a sense of focus and occasion that makes the celebration even more meaningful. The same can be said for historical anniversaries associated with a community. A centennial, sesquicenten-nial, or other significant anniversary of a major event — such as the founding of a community, a birth date of a significant historical citizen or the anniversary of

a major happening in the history of the community (such as an historical battle in the War of 1812) - can provide an oc­casion to highlight and commemorate the history of a community.

Canada-wide Commemorations

With the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and Bicentennial of the start of the War of 1812,2012 was a bumper year for anni­versaries. Both of these events provided the excuse to highlight their history. Fes­tivals and conferences were held, exhibits mounted, plaques installed, books written, and medals awarded to commemorate these once-in-a-lifetime occasions. Each left a legacy in its own way. Nationally significant anniversaries like these often come with an added bonus - funding (in this case, from the federal government, which supported events and activities across the country and provided promo­tional materials free of charge, such as flags, pins, and banners).

Of those communities that were most successful in planning and achieving funding for national anniversary-related

projects and activities, the most successful

were those that saw the anniversary on the calendar - up to a decade before the event took place. Grimsby, for example, was planning for years for the Bicentennial of a battle on the town's waterfront known as the Engagement at the Forty, which took place on June 8, 1813. Extensive advance planning, promotion, and fundraising made this a successful event.

While many of these events strike a positive tone, 1812 brings attention to the fact that not all events in history were happy and glorious but still worth com­memorating to provide an important sense of our histoiy. The War of 1812 is there­fore commemorated, not "celebrated,"

since although the outcome led indirectly to Canadian independence from the U.S., the death and hardship associated with a war make "commemoration" rather than "celebration" more appropriate. Perhaps the stories are tough and difficult, but there's no reason why, under such circum­stances, a community couldn't pause to reflect and "commemorate" an event in local history that defined a community.

2014 also marks two much more sombre anniversaries, the centennial of the beginning of the First World War and the 75th anniversary of the Second World War. With more than 110,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders losing their lives during these great international conflicts, neither are events where the word "cele­bration" comes to mind. However, their importance to world histoiy, and the inspiring valour and sacrifice of those who served and died in the service of our country, make them events that must be

remembered and commemorated. The

federal government, through the depart­

ment of veterans affairs, has been work­ing with counterparts from 22 countries around the world to develop a coordinated approach to these anniversaries and to provide Canadians with the opportunity to reflect on our country's long and proud military history.

Other Anniversaries

There are other anniversaries (such as the date at which a municipality was founded) that communities can celebrate - perhaps the anniversary of the founding as a village, town, or city. Some commu­nities, like Brampton, are able to celebrate all three (1853,1873, and 1974). And, why not? Each provides a benchmark to look back on and compare - to see how far the community has come, evaluate its progress, and reflect on how they became what they are today. By doing this, com­munities are reinforcing their sense of his­tory, which contributes to a stronger sense of place, continuity, and community.

There are many types of events that can be commemorated - the birth of a leading citizen of the past, or perhaps of

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MICHAEL SEAMAN, MCIR RPP is Director of Planning forthe Town of Grimsby. Previously, he was a Manager of Heritage Planning with theTown of Oakviile, and a Senior Heri­tage Planner with the City of Markham and Town of Aurora, All three communities were

winners of the Prince of Wales Prize for Municipal Heritage Leadership. Michael is editor for heritage for the Ontario Planning Journal. From 2009 to 2012 he served as Ontario Governor on the board of the Heritage Canada Foundation,

FEBRUARY 2 0 1 4 M U N I C I P A L W O R L D 5

a time when a leading citizen was active

in the community. In the early 1990s,

Halifax, for example, celebrated the bi­

centennial of the era in which His Royal

Highness Prince Edward resided in the

city. The father of Queen Victoria, Prince

Edward, was responsible for shaping the

city and many of its landmarks during his

time there. Commemoration of this era in

books and tours was a highlight of tour­

ism activities during this period. Halifax

recently "commemorated" another major

event in the histoiy of the city - the sink­

ing of the Titanic (Halifax being a centre

of recovery efforts for the victims of the

lost unsinkable liner). Walking tours were

conducted, books were published, and

events were held to mark this occasion -

reinforcing a sense of history, but mindful

of the solemnity of the event that resulted

in significant loss of life. No doubt, sim­

ilar "commemoration" efforts will take

place in 2017, on the Centennial of the

Halifax Explosion.

Anniversaries are usually useful when

it comes to heritage matters, and help in

the marshalling the resources to under­

take those major projects. Think of the

major initiatives undertaken in 1967 to

commemorate the Centennial, or in 2000

to commemorate the new Millennium.

Anniversaries help to move projects along

in a timeline quicker than they might have

done otherwise.

Planning for the Future

As part of long range planning activ­

ities for a community, it's important then

to maintain a list of significant anniver­

saries of local, provincial, and national

significance. 2012 was certainly a banner

year for anniversaries, but there are more

just around the corner. 2014 marks the

sesquicentennial of the Charlottetown

Conference, the first in a series of meet­

ings that ultimately led to the founding of

Canada. Prince Edward Island is celebrat­

ing this historical event in a big way with

plans for major concerts, theatre festivals,

eco-tours, culinary events, sailing regattas,

and the establishment of a Celebration

Zone in Charlottetown featuring enter­

tainment every day in the summer. And,

it's not just public events that are inspired

by anniversaries; with the events of 150

years ago in mind, the Heritage Canada

Foundation chose to host its 2014 annual

conference in Charlottetown from Octo­

ber 2 to 4, 2014.

What of the future? Preliminary

plans are underway for celebration of the

Queen's Platinum Jubilee in 2022, for

example; but, most significant of them all

will be a true celebration - the Sesquicen­

tennial of Confederation and the Centen­

nial battle of Vimy Ridge coming in 2017,

just three short years away. The Sesqui­

centennial is certainly to be the most

significant anniversary in many of our

lifetimes around the history of Canada.

Look for similar events, activities ... and

funding opportunities that were seen in

the celebration of Canada's Centennial in

1967 and for Canada 125 in 1992. Munic-J

ipalities should not forget to mark these

dates and others on the calendar. There is

no time like the present to start planning

for these and other significant milestones

of the past to commemorate and celebrate

in the future. M W

G L O 2 B

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6 M U N I C I P A L W O R L D FEBRUARY 2014

real estate by Rudy Nielsen

The Heritage Advantage

Dress codes, photo-radar speed traps, suspicious Canada Custom border

guards, humourless Revenue Canada auditors; most people readily agree that the concept of regulation - i f not the reality - is necessary and even laudable in a modern and progressive society ... just as long as these realities don't affect them personally.

But, i f a particular person gets taken off to the side, audited, or refused en­trance, the understanding attitude usu­ally changes very quickly. The abstract concept of regulation has now become personal, and the individual affected often baulks.

It's the same with the "heritage" designation.

Benefits - But Also Responsibilities

The benefits to the greater com­munity are many: the sense of history,

enhanced tourism, preservation of ex­isting density and streetscapes, the cost benefits of "recycling" old structures, and so on.

When asked, most people are en­chanted with the concept of preserving their community's stately old homes and fine heritage buildings ... assuming that someone else carries the cost of maintaining the old dowagers, as well as accepting the restrictions inherent in the "heritage" designation.

But, on the individual level, relatively few people want to be that "someone" -and for what they see as good reasons: heritage ownership can be problematic.

In British Columbia and other prov­inces, once a property is registered as "heritage" by the local government, the

designation "travels with the title" and can't be changed when the property is resold. In return for various tax and financial benefits and the pride of own­ership, current and future owners who wish to alter the exterior, renovate, or replace, or demolish the structure face a long and uncertain review process. Typically, the authorities can delay such actions, impose penalties for noncom­pliance or "illegal" work or, in some jurisdictions, simply and unequivocally deny the request.

Even i f the place happens to catch fire and burn down to charcoal and splintered rock, some jurisdictions wi l l demand that whatever follows on the lot must be an exact replica of the vanished structure. Today's labour and material costs make any such "handmade" re­build prohibitively costly.

Faced with such restrictions and deterrents, it's small wonder that many who own "heritage worthy" properties are loath to seek official designation. However, i f they looked at the deeper and longer-term real estate data, they might reconsider.

Case Study - New Westminster, B.C.

Perhaps it's the relative rarity, exclu-siveness, cachet, or the type of owners and buyers it attracts, but within what's arguably Canada's most high-powered real estate market - Metro Vancouver -long-term sales trends in the small City of New Westminster underscore the val­ue of heritage.

Set on the Fraser River and to the southeast of Vancouver, "New West" (a.k.a. the "Royal City") has an eclec-

FEBRUARY 2 0 1 4

tic mix of commercial and residential, much of it circa the 1880s when the city was founded and became (briefly) the capital of the new British colony, which in turn became the Province of British Columbia.

In good times and even in bad mar­

kets, heritage-designated single-family dwellings (SFD) in New West have con­sistently outperformed average homes. Even when compared to equally ven­erable properties in similar neighbour­hoods - but which lack the distinctive curled wooden placards denoting then-status - "true" heritage enjoys a hefty double-digit premium.

The B.C. Assessment Authority currently has 7,180 SFD titles listed in New Westminster (at time of writing). In turn, the city's Heritage Register website says it has 193 titles, but lists only 189 of which 121 are SFD or 1.68 percent of the overall SFD pool. Of these 121 heritage SFDs, the register doesn't provide exact addresses for 28 titles, leaving 93 titles clustered in five neighbourhoods:

Queen's Park: 37 titles, 53 to 124 years old. Average age: 102 years,

i West End: 29 titles, 71 to 122 years. Average age: 100 years.

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RUDY NIELSEN R.I (B.C.) F.R.I is President and CEO of Landcor Data Corporation, offering

an in-house, state-of-the-art system for real estate analysis and valuation. Rudy has over

40 years'experience in the real estate industry working in ap­

praisal, residential, commercial, recreational, and industrial properties fields. He can be reached at <rudy@landcor.com>.

M U N I C I P A L W O R L D 15

Table 1 Table 2 Table 3

New Westminster: New Westminster: New Westminster:

Total Non-Heritage SFD Non-Heritage 'Old' S F D * * Heritage Register SFD

Year Average

Price # Sales

Average Age/ Sales Year

2000 $255,762 303 51 2001 $263,756 424 50 2002 $279,827 460 52 2003 $307,042 456 49 2004 $357,620 394 50 2005 $409,901 431 52 2006 $495,622 366 50 2007 $550,661 367 54 2008 $564,497 301 45 2009 $536,093 315 47 2010 $586,362 385 43 2011 $642,129 385 49 2012 $683,974 270 56 2013* $704,148 229 58

•October 26/13

Brow of the Hil l : 16 titles, 74 to 126 years. Average age: 106 years. Upper/North Glenbrook: 10 titles, 70 to 120 years. Average age: 103

years. DL 172/Corrnaught Heights: One title, 96 years. When compared to the long-term

sales volume and values of "other" SFD of all ages (Table 1) and the city's stock of older "non-heritage" SFD (Table 2), the results are interesting. Over the last 14 years, heritage has almost always "beaten the street" in terms of value and appreciation.

Despite the seemingly ageless housing construction boom in the greater Metro Vancouver area, New Westminster clearly shows its age, relatively small size, and resulting scarcity of new/vacant SFD lots; even when new construction is blended into the mix, the average age of all non-heritage SFD sales approaches "senior" - 50.43 years.

Equally interesting, the relative strength of SFD in New Westminster: even during the 2008/09 global reces­

sion, volume and values didn't slip much and rebounded quickly ... but not as quickly or strongly as heritage properties.

The overall non-heritage data was filtered to extract "old" SFD titles (73 plus years); i f the owners so wished and the city agreed, many of these proper­ties could be candidates for heritage sta­tus. But, the owners haven't asked; so

Year Average

Price # Sales

Average Age/ Sales Year

2000 $216,460 130 77 2001 $260,210 168 79 2002 $269,893 196 80 2003 $292,510 163 80 2004 $341,050 153 81 2005 $389,839 162 84 2006 $485,548 135 83 2007 $565,021 149 85 2008 $559,976 90 85 2009 $517,726 90 89 2010 $570,217 117 89 2011 $617,153 122 88 2012 $701,914 96 91 2013* $694,564 80 90

•October 26/13 " 7 3 plus years

although they're aged, these SFD aren't in the Heritage Register.

Interestingly, after peaking in 2002 to almost 200 sales and then hovering

around the 150 mark, the 2008/09 reces­sion saw year-over-year sales volume fall by more than a third, values by more than 10 percent. This submarket rebounded, but only to a point. In the last two years, values remain strong; but, volume appears to be on the de­cline, either through erosion of inven­tory and/or "natural causes," where the unprotected old and inefficient is finally replaced by new construction.

Vis-a-vis "older" yet non-heritage

SFD, the "official" heritage SFD con­sistently posted higher average values, as shown in Table 3. (The sole excep­tion was in 2001/02 when average year-over-year values stumbled from $312,300 on five sales to $213,875 on six sales, or off by more than 30 percent but soon recovered.)

During the 2008/09 global recession, and where other residential product classes suffered, heritage SFD defied the norm and, after a prescient dip in 2007/08, jumped in value by 14.2 per­cent over the 2007 comparable, and on increased volume. It slipped back, but

rebounded strongly. In general, heritage SFD average

sales values and appreciation has matched or outperformed all non-heri­tage SFD, be it middle age or compar­atively senior. For example, in 2013, the average heritage sales value hit

Year Average

Price # Sales

Average Age/ Sales Year

2000 $312,300 5 96 2001 $213,875 6 98 2002 $338,188 8 95 2003 $405,550 10 93 2004 $400,740 10 98 2005 $504,938 8 89 2006 $517,333 6 93 2007 $623,629 7 102 2008 $572,600 5 101 2009 $726,929 7 89 2010 $661,667 3 105 2011 $705,917 3 100 2012 $822,417 6 93 2013* $713,466 4 101

•October 26/13

$822,417 versus $701,914 for "filtered"

non-heritage sales and a mere $683,974 for general SFD sales for a "heritage premium" of 14.6 and 16.8 percent re­spectively.

Still Little Interest f rom Owners

In March 2013, the New Westmin­ster city council considered setting up four initial "heritage conservation ar­eas" within the Queen's Park, Brow of the Hi l l , Uptown, and Queensborough neighbourhoods. I f approved, council would have the authority to veto dem­olition of 99 selected properties within these older, historically, and architec­

turally rich areas. In turn, the city's stock of heritage SFD would more than double.

But, as the New Westminster News

Leader later reported, support among the affected owners was "limited": a mere 11 approved, six were undecided, 50 didn't respond to the survey, and 32 were adamantly opposed.

One written response strongly ad­vised council to focus on the developers who blithely demolish old housing stock and not "pick on us homeowners" who have already demonstrated a com­mitment to history by purchasing and maintaining old homes, and who don't want a new set of bureaucratic restric­

tions placed on them. The proposal was dropped, the curly

placards stayed put, and i f there was a "heritage premium" to be had, the op­portunity wasn't realized. M W

16 MUNICIPAL WORLD F E B R U A R Y 2014