Leaside Heritage Appreciation Event Fall 2012 Objectives To inform, educate and plan to move forward as a community in order to protect the significant built heritage resources of Leaside. The run-up year to the Town of Leaside’s Centennial (April 23 2013) is an opportune time to start the conversation. Agenda The session would include the following elements: • The history of the growth and development of Leaside • The “character” of Leaside and the current planning, building demolition, and built heritage challenges • Lessons from other places (e.g. Mount Royal) • Alternative strategies such as Heritage Conservation District(s) and their implications (e.g. property values) Background Heritage preservation is not only about saving old (and sometimes not so old) buildings, rather it is about maintaining a unique quality of place, about enhancing the quality of life, and about supporting the cultural and economic vitality that accompanies areas with high conservation values (such as Wychwood Park, Rosedale, Cabbagetown). Leaside was a “model town”, planned in complete detail before a single building was erected – its 1912 street and lot plan was the work of landscape architect Frederick Todd, who designed Mount Royal in Montreal. When development got going in the 1930s and 40s Georgian and Tudor Revival styles were favoured by its developers, of whom the most well known is Henry Howard Talbot our home town developer-Mayor. In Leaside today there are several protected properties but except for the Talbot apartments on Bayview, they are nearly all from the estates of the late 19 th century, such as 262 Bessborough (the Elgie House). The Talbot apartments were designated under the Ontario Heritage only after there was a major threat of demolition to them. And it took a massive community wide effort (lead by the Leaside Property Owners’ Association) to preserve them. Leaside‘s Georgian and Tudor Revival heritage on streets like Parkhurst, Sutherland, Rumsey, Bessborough and Airdrie are under continuous attack from developers “from away” with no respect for the context or the history of the area. The built heritage of Leaside, Ontario’s first planned community is at risk, and it is time to demonstrate the will to do something about it. This session is an opportunity to learn what can be done and start to take action! 1 Sponsor : North York Community Preservation Panel (NYCPP) Proposed Partners: Leaside One Hundred (confirmed) Leaside Property Owners’ Association (LPOA) (TBC) East York Historical Society (TBC) Heritage Toronto (TBC) NYCPP May 17 2012 2 .