488-500 Bank Street Ottawa, Ontario
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488-500 Bank Street Ottawa, Ontario SEPTEMBER CULTURAL HERITAGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT 2012 PREPARED FOR: PREPARED BY: Urban Capital Property Group BRAY Heritage with: FoTenn Consulting Page 2 | Bray Heritage 488-500 Bank Street | Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Property Information ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Study Scope and Methodology ...................................................................................................... 2 2 History and Heritage Significance of the Area ............................................................. 3 2.1 History .................................................................................................................................................. 3 2.2 Heritage Significance ........................................................................................................................ 4 3 History and Heritage Significance of the Property ...................................................... 7 3.1 History of Property ............................................................................................................................ 7 3.2 Property Description ....................................................................................................................... 12 3.3 Heritage Character Statement ..................................................................................................... 18 4 Current Heritage and Relevant Planning Policies .......................................................... 21 5 Impact of the Proposed Development ............................................................................. 23 5.1 Conservation Principles .................................................................................................................. 23 5.2 Description of Proposed Development and Impact Mitigation Measures ............................ 24 5.3 Rationale for the Chosen Development Option ............................................................................ 27 5.4 Impact on Cultural Heritage Resources ....................................................................................... 28 5.5 Conclusion: Conservation and Development Strategy ............................................................. 28 Appendices Appendix A – Chronology of Site Occupation Appendix B – Excerpts from Centretown HCD Plan Appendix C – Excerpts from Bank Street Heritage Infill Guidelines Appendix D – References Page 4 | Bray Heritage 488-500 Bank Street | Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment 1 Introduction At the request of Urban Capital Property Group, Bray Heritage has been retained prepare a Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment (CHIA) for the property located at 488 and 500 Bank Street, in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. The purpose of the CHIA is to determine the impact of the proposed development of a 9 storey mixed use building on the existing heritage resources found on the property. Since the property is located within the Centretown Heritage Conservation District (HCD), designated under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act, and the existing mixed use building on the property is listed as a Category 2 heritage resource and thus merits conservation, the City of Ottawa requires that a CHIA be prepared to accompany the proponent’s development application to the City. 1.1 Property Information Municipal Address: 488 & 500 Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario Legal Description: 488 Bank Street: Part of Lot 7 West of Bank Street, Plan 30, in the City of Ottawa, Ontario Property # 04122-0197 500 Bank Street: Lot 8 West of Bank Street, Plan 30, in the City of Ottawa, Ontario Property # 04122-0198 Site Area: 0.12 hectares (approximately) Current Uses: 488 Bank Street: ground floor commercial (European Glass and Paint sales offices and storage); upper floor residential (rental apartments; sales administrative office above sales offices) 500 Bank Street: vacant lot (surface parking) 488-500 Bank Street | Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment Bray Heritage | Page 1 1.2 Study Scope and Methodology This CHIA has been prepared in accordance with the City of Ottawa’s Guidelines for the Preparation of Cultural Heritage Impact Statements (April 21, 2010) and following the process for the inventory and evaluation of cultural heritage properties outlined in the Provincial Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport’s “Ontario Heritage Tool Kit” and specified in Ontario Regulation 9/06. The research and conclusions contained herein are based on information gathered from a limited historical review and site inspection. The historical research relies on information from secondary sources, collected within the study scope of work, time and budget limitations. The study scope did not include a condition or structural assessment conducted by a professional structural engineer, or an assessment of archaeological resource potential conducted by a registered archaeologist. The scope of research included: • Research into the historical evolution of the property and its environs, based on available secondary sources (fire insurance plans, directories, local histories, historical photographs) found in the National Archives, City of Ottawa Archives, and in published materials; • Site reconnaissance of the property and surrounding area; • Review of adopted and draft City of Ottawa planning policies and urban design guidelines for the subject property and area; • Review of the Centretown Heritage Conservation District Plan and its heritage property inventory and evaluation listings; • Review of the proponent’s proposed design for the new building to be constructed on the property; • Review of comments made on the proposed design by the City of Ottawa’s Urban Design Review Panel; and • Review of Bank Street heritage infill guidelines. The results of this research inform the study conclusions and recommendations. Page 2 | Bray Heritage 488-500 Bank Street | Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment 2 History and Heritage Significance of the Area 2.1 History The subject property is located in a part of Ottawa formerly known as “Stewarton” and now known as “Centretown” (c.f. Centretown Heritage Conservation District Study: Smith et. al., 1997). As described in that report, “Centretown...is the surviving residential community and informal meeting ground associated with Parliament Hill” (op.cit. p. 7). Here lived many of the people whose employer was the federal government, either working as bureaucrats or as elected or appointed members. Centretown’s primarily low-rise residential character is most evident in the parts that are near the main streets, while the main streets themselves have a more consistent low-medium density character, as befits mixed-use commercial arteries. According to historical research found in the Centretown HCD Study (op.cit. p. 14), Stewarton’s origins began with the purchase in 1834 by William Stewart of Lot F, located immediately south of the By estate. Stewart died in 1856 without having developed his properties and his family did likewise until after Ottawa became the nation’s capital. In 1868, Mrs. Catherine Stewart developed a portion of these lands as her country estate. She built a large country house on extensive grounds, called “Appin Place”, and, in 1871, surveyed and subdivided into town lots the rest of the family lands. The subject property abuts Flora Street, one of four streets in the new subdivision named after her children (the street was not formally opened until 1883: Elliott 1991, p. 129). By the mid-1870s, Stewarton was becoming a new community characterized by large country estates such as the Stewart’s “Appin Place”. Serving these were a general store and post office. The rural character of the time is reflected in Stewarton’s small population of 250 (op. cit. p. 14). Although Bank Street was extended beyond the City limits at Ann/Gladstone in 1865-67 (Elliott 1991, p. 112), lands abutting it remained undeveloped. South of the City limits, the street alignment bent away from the north-south grid in order for Bank Street to connect to an existing road leading from Billings Bridge (Smith et.al. 1997, p. 55). In 1879, the street was described as a “dusty trail with open fields on either side” with no new construction in the vicinity aside from the modest developments mentioned above (op. cit. Appendix A1). 488-500 Bank Street | Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment Bray Heritage | Page 3 Ottawa grew outward from its core at the junction of the Rideau Canal and Ottawa River, and the area including Stewarton was one of its later additions. Until 1888, the City limit was Ann Street (now Gladstone Avenue), just north of the subject property. Growth outside the southern City limits was stimulated, but also geographically limited by, construction in 1882 of the Canadian Atlantic Railway tracks and station just south of the subject properties, on lands now occupied by the Queensway. The subject lands were therefore in a transition zone between the municipal limits and the city’s major east-west transportation corridor. As a result, development in this zone did not begin in earnest until after the railway came. Development was encouraged in part by the railway and by annexation, but also by extension in the 1880s of streetcar services south along Bank to the Glebe and fairgrounds.