Town of New Tecumseth Downtown Beeton Heritage Conservation District Study Submitted to: Town of New Tecumseth 10 Wellington Street East Alliston, ON L9R 1A1 Planning & Design Inc. June 2018 Acknowledgments The project team would like to thank Patrick D'Almada, Katie Huddleston and Krista Barclay of the Town of New Tecumseth for their guidance in carrying out this study. The following committees and people also contributed to the study: Heritage New Tecumseth Advisory Committee Members; Project Steering Committee members - Councillor Shira Harrison McIntyre, Councillor Richard Norcross, Sabina Morell, Stephen Mrasek, Bert Platt, Roy Sherman, and Clara Viscardi; and individual property owners and members of the public who shared their feedback during the project by attending stakeholder meetings and workshops, completing on-line surveys, visiting the project website, leaving comments on the project comment board, and talking to us at the Beeton Fall Fair. Thank you all for your time and contributions. Downtown Beeton Heritage Conservation District Study Table of Contents Executive Summary 4 Study Purpose 4 Study Scope 4 Study Findings and Recommendations 5 User’s Guide 6 Frequently Asked Questions 6 1.0 Introduction 7 1.1 Context for Study 7 1.2 Project Scope 7 1.3 What is a Heritage Conservation District? 8 1.4 Structure of Report 10 2.0 Policy Framework 11 2.1 Provincial Policy Framework 11 2.2 Regional Policy Framework 14 2.3 Municipal Policy Framework 14 2.4 Guidelines and Plans in the Heritage Conservation District Study Area 18 2.5 Summary of Development Applications 22 2.6 Opportunities and Constraints 24 2.7 Conclusion and Potential Areas of Policy Conflict 26 Downtown Beeton Heritage Conservation District Study 1 3.0 History and Evolution of the Study Area 28 3.1 Indigenous Land Use and Settlement 29 3.2 Early European Settlement (1798 – 1860s) 31 3.3 Community Solidification and Prosperity (1870-1900) 33 3.4 Fire and Recovery (1892 – 1905) 39 3.5 Early Twentieth Century (1905 – 1920) 41 3.6 Mid-Twentieth Century (1920-1960) 42 3.7 Late Twentieth Century (1970 – Present) 43 4.0 Built Form and Landscape Survey 45 4.1 Methodology 45 4.2 Summary of Survey Results 46 5.0 Community and Stakeholder Consultation 48 5.1 Municipal Heritage Committee and Steering Committee 48 5.2 Property Owners Workshops 50 5.3 Public Information Centre 1 50 5.4 Public Information Centre 2 52 5.5 On-Line Survey 55 5.6 Comment Board at Beeton Public Library 56 5.7 Other Forms of Project Communications and Engagement 57 6.0 Character Analysis 58 6.1 Historical and Contextual Analysis 58 6.2 Design and Architectural Analysis 62 6.3 Built Form Analysis 68 6.4 Landscape Analysis 71 6.5 Circulation and Community Use Analysis 75 6.6 Streetscape Typologies 76 7.0 Evaluation of Significance and Cultural Heritage Value 82 2 Downtown Beeton Heritage Conservation District Study 8.0 Heritage Conservation District Boundary Recommendation and Rationale 87 8.1 Potential for Future Extension of HCD Boundary 91 9.0 Draft Statement of District Significance 92 10.0 Implementation 94 10.1 Next Steps and Potential Heritage Conservation District Plan 94 10.2 Administration 97 10.3 Financial Incentives 97 11.0 Bibliography 98 APPENDIX A: Built Form and Landscape Survey Data Sheets APPENDIX B: Consultation Materials APPENDIX C: Zoning By-Law Designations APPENDIX D: Summary of Urban Design Guidelines Downtown Beeton Heritage Conservation District Study 3 Current Land Use Executive Summary • Examination of Landscape Features (including but not limited to): Study Purpose Streetscapes Heritage street trees The Town of New Tecumseth retained Archaeological Alignment and grouping of buildings Services Inc. (ASI), in collaboration with SGL Planning & Design Inc. (SGL), to complete a Heritage Significant View Conservation District Study within a defined area of Open space and parks downtown Beeton, generally containing properties on Main Street from Dayfoot to Centre Street, and Other landscape elements of importance properties on Centre Street from Main Street to • Application and evaluation of provincial Prospect Street, as well as properties located on criteria and definitions for Heritage Dale Street between Centre Street and Patterson. Conservation Districts An ongoing discussion between municipal staff and Heritage Committee members regarding an • Recommendation of a proposed boundary for HCD study in Beeton had occurred for several years a Heritage Conservation District, as applicable prior. Additionally, a range of design guidelines and enhancement plans, as well as the Beeton Secondary • Public Consultation Plan, clearly establish an on-going recognition of a unique historical character and grouping of Circulation of project information at the heritage features within Beeton. The Secondary 2017 Beeton Fall Fair Plan also recommended consideration of a Heritage Mail outs to property owners containing Conservation District in the downtown core. information about the project, property owner workshop notices, frequently asked Study Scope questions about HCDs, surveys, and public meeting information The Request for Proposal (RFP) established the study terms of reference. The following tasks were Routine study updates to a project website completed as part of the study: Advertisement of public meetings in local • Review of relevant background materials newspapers (policies, plans, and archival information) • Research of settlement pattern and Distribution of on-line and hard copy development history surveys • Identification and analysis of architecturally Two workshops with property owners in and/or historically significant properties October and November 2017 through the consideration of the following factors: Two Public Meetings in November 2017 and April 2018 Architectural styles, material, construction • Meetings with the Project Steering Form Committee in October 2017 and February Height and Scale 2018 Building and Street Character • Presentation to Council 4 Downtown Beeton Heritage Conservation District Study Study Findings and cover of the fairground property contributes to the Recommendations area’s scenic, associative, and social values. 18 Main Street, a late-nineteenth-century residential property known as the Simpson House, was added due to its The downtown historic core of Beeton, including associations with the former Queen’s Hotel (Milt the concentration of commercial buildings on Main Simpson owned both properties). The property at 1 Street and transitional and residential areas on Main Street East was added for its association with Centre Street between Main Street and Prospect Kate Aitken, a prominent member of the Beeton Street, have been determined to meet the provincial community, its association with the commercial core criteria and definitions for designation of a Heritage of Beeton, and its location at the intersection of Main Conservation District. The results of research, Street and Centre Street. analysis, and community and property owner consultation resulted in recommending a smaller The recommended boundary includes properties and more refined District boundary than the area that together form a concentration of cohesive originally assessed as directed by the project terms heritage resources. The area contains commercial, of reference. The recommended boundary was institutional, civic, and residential properties and determined through a detailed analysis of the study three distinct streetscape typologies, as well as area’s characteristics and consideration of heritage a spectrum of architectural styles and defining evaluation criteria, followed by review and discussion landscape features. These divergences do not with the project Steering Committee, and was further fracture or diminish the area’s cohesiveness and, refined based on feedback received at the second instead, together effectively express Beeton’s Public Information Centre held in April 2018. significant period of development between 1870 and 1905. This area reflects Beeton’s period of intensive The recommended boundary differs from the original development in the last quarter of the nineteenth study area boundary. The western portion of the century and the unique settlement patterns that key original study area – the residential area along influencers, Robert Clark and D.A. Jones, imposed Main Street – is not included in the recommended on the landscape. This area also contains core boundary. This section lacks a strong degree community assets and open spaces such as the Town of consistency and cohesion in age, style, and Hall and fairgrounds and the portion of Main Street composition of its built form and does not, as a that functions as a civic corridor, hosting parades and whole, effectively express periods of development public events. that have been identified as significant within Beeton. While there are individual nineteenth- The study recommends that Council proceed with and early twentieth-century properties that are the next step towards designation which is to of potential individual heritage significance, these instruct staff to initiate preparation of a Heritage properties could potentially be more appropriately Conservation District Plan. Following the extensive protected through individual designation under Part staff and public consultation involved in the Plan IV of the Ontario Heritage Act. phase, the Town would prepare a by-law to designate lands within the recommended boundary as a Three properties that were not originally Heritage Conservation District