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Heritage advocates fear Kelowna is on a destructive path when it comes to heritage. Last week council followed a staff recommendation to remove one of the oldest buildings from its heritage registry. It sparks fears that it will clear the way for other valued buildings to meet with the wrecking ball.
We spoke with Peter Chattaway, a neighbour and heritage advocate about council's decision to remove a house built in 1909 from the city's heritage registry, and pave the way for its demolition.
"It's not based on evidence," Chattaway told KelownaNow. He doesn't buy the argument put forward that the old home would be too costly to be salvaged. "Those are not heritage criteria," he argued. The Park Avenue house belonged to F.W. Groves, a surveyor back in the day.
"The developers here are destroying their own story," added Chattaway. "How contradictory is that?" Staff argued that council should vote to remove the house from its heritage registry, in part because the register doesn't actually stop homeowners from demolishing a building anyway.
In order to force heritage status on a property owner, staff told council they would have to put an involuntary heritage designation in place. The existing status doesn't really protect heritage, it just identifies it.
"It's at the whim of the individual property owner," said Mayor Colin Basran. He voted in favour of removing the home from the registry but with grave reservations. "Over time we will end up with a replica heritage conservation area," he admitted to a divided council.
Council's vote, 5-4 goes against the recommendations of its own heritage advisory committee which gave it a heritage score of 71 out of 100.
Councillor Mohini Singh pointed out that the previous owner received a grant of $7,500 as recently as 2017 because of the home's heritage value. "I find that all a bit annoying," she told her council colleagues.
But Chattaway wants more than just words of sympathy about the loss of our community's heritage buildings.
The owner plans to rebuild on the property with a home that has a heritage look.
"They're changing the character of the neighbourhood into a neo-traditional neighbourhood," said Chattaway.
He fears what's happening at 409 Park Avenue will pave the way for other developers to knock down heritage homes to make way for houses with all the things that appeal to modern home buyers.
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