Home Demolitions on Hold
September 7, 2005

A plan to demolish six homes on Tisdale and King Street suffered a temporary setback on Tuesday when it came before the city's planning committee. At the urging of councillor Brian McHattie, the committee agreed to delay the demolitions until the owner submits a plan for the future of the properties.

The houses are owned by Loblaws which also controls the No Frills plaza immediately to the south. The company requested permits to demolish the houses but has offered no information about what it intends to do with the area. The staff report speculates "that the demolition of the six dwellings will allow for future expansion of the existing commercial plazas and or additional parking" for the existing commercial area.

This led councillor McHattie to ask for the demolitions to be delayed "subject to the applicant entering into and receiving a Site Plan Agreement approved by the Planning and Economic Development Department".

The city has a policy of not permitting house demolitions unless a building permit has also been applied for to replace it with equivalent residential uses. The policy was put in place to prevent further losses of affordable housing. However, it only applies in the central core of the city and does not extend to the Tisdale area.

As a consequence, McHattie has sought to amend most demolition requests outside the core to include a requirement to replace homes. In this instance, the houses are zoned commercial, so the replacement is unlikely to be residential.