by Edith Cody-Rice
The Millstone has received a copy of the letter that Brian Gallagher sent to property owners in or around the proposed Heritage Conservation District, and of the presentation made to the Mississippi Mills Committee of the Whole on January 13, 2015.
Below we reprint Mr. Gallagher’s letter and presentation. We then provide an analysis of the list of property owners who signed a “letter of intent”, provided by Mr. Gallagher, through which owners stated their intention not to enter into an agreement with the Town for a Heritage District designation.
264 properties were reviewed in the Heritage District Study area. On the recommendation of the heritage consultants the proposed Heritage District was reduced to include approximately 133 registered properties. Of these, 38 owners (joint and individual) of 46 properties signed the “letter of intent.”
Letter sent to property owners
Newsletter
Of
Property Owners in the reduced Heritage Conservation District
As many of you are aware, The Town of Mississippi Mills is in the process of doing a study, to establish a Heritage Conservation district in your area (see attached map). This is an effort to retain the historic look of the area and maintain the “Mill Town” atmosphere. What it will mean to you is, the Municipality through a group of local individuals, interested in heritage, will have control over the look of any repairs, maintenance or improvements, which you may want to make to the exterior or to the landscape around your property.
The signed letters of intent (of your wishes not to enter into an agreement for heritage purposes with the Town), which we collected from many of you in the last couple of weeks, were presented to Council at their Meeting of the Whole on January 13th, 2015. In advance of our presentation, council made a motion to defer action on the heritage By-law for two weeks until our concerns could be heard. We addressed Council at that time, with our concerns about their lack of proper involvement of the property owners, how they still did not have the guidelines developed and how the majority of the residents in that area, did not want the Municipality to have any more control over their private property. Our presentation was covered in the January 22nd edition of the Canadian Gazette.
The next meeting of Council was on January 27th, 2015. One of the first issues at this meeting was the acceptance of the CAO’s report, in which she weakly refuted the points, which were made in our address of January 13 th to council.
They also;
1) passed By-Law #15-04 which amended By-Law #14-86 and adopted the reduced area for the heritage study (attached map).
2) moved to proceed with Phase 2 of the study, to prepare the guidelines and policies.
3) moved to delay the next five recommendations in the consultants report.
4) moved as well that additional public meetings for property owners and the general public be held, in an effort to provide information and build support for the project.
We have not protested this part of the study because they have the funds from the province in hand and are apparently committed to finishing this portion. We are also interested in seeing what the proposed guidelines and policies are going to be. We will make you aware of them and the dates of the meetings, so that you may express your opinion.
Councillor John Edwards has proposed the following motion, which will be presented at the February 3 rd meeting-
Whereas Bylaw 14-86 is a bylaw to designate downtown Almonte and surrounding area as a heritage conservation district study area and Committee of the Whole Agenda February 3, 2015 Page 2
Whereas its sole purpose is to impose a moratorium on all construction (with minor exceptions) in the HCD study area due to concerns about only one project (ENERDU Hydro plant) and Whereas the Enerdu project was subject to a Heritage Impact Study whose conclusions were approved by the Provincial Ministry of Heritage, Culture and Sport. And
Whereas, the architect for the Enerdu project and the developer are very welcoming and open to advice and input through the Ministry approved ENERDU Design Advisory Committee and Whereas the ‘moratorium bylaw’ has created much negative feelings in the entire HCD and an unprecedented three separate appeals from sixteen residents to the OMB against the bylaw and
Whereas effective HCD’s need positive (ly)-minded property owners who are willing to undertake sympathetic heritage construction work on their buildings
and
Whereas Council desires to have a positive relationship with HCD property owners in order to effect a successful HCD and
Whereas the ‘moratorium bylaw’ has become a threat to the implementation of an HCD,
Now therefore be it resolved that the Council of the Town of Mississippi Mills rescind Bylaw 14-86 as amended by Bylaw 15-04.
We are in support of this motion and would appreciate the support of you and as many of your friends as your can persuade to accompany you to the February 3 meeting of Council at the Town Hall. 3131 Old Perth Road at 6:00 pm. Seating may be limited so come early. If you know a councillor, or would not mind calling one, please ask him/her to support John’s motion.
One of the other reasons for our request for support is that the Mayor cannot seem to separate the Enerdu project from the Heritage Conservation District concept and is encouraging support from the anti-Enerdu faction to defeat the motion. For details see –
http:Uwww.shaunoncounciI.ca/2015/OI/enerdu-update-winter-2015.html
Thank you,
Brian on behalf of all of us.
Letter of Intent
l/we ….. registered owner(s) of the property located at …..
Almonte, ON KOA IAO, do not wish to enter into an agreement with The Corporation of Mississippi Mills as part of a Heritage Conservation District under the Ontario Heritage Act R.S.O. 1990, c. 0.18
Sincerely,
Dated this
day of ….. , 2015
Committee of the Whole presentation
On January 13, a delegation represented by Brian Gallagher appeared to present its objections to the protective HCD moratorium. Here is the written presentation
The presentation and signed “letters of intent’ are available here Brian Gallagher delegation
Analysis of signatories to the “letters of intent”
There are
| Last Name | First Name | Property Owned | Comments / Notes |
| Arbour | Patrick | 72 Mill Street | |
| Bolger | Bill | 31 Union Street South | |
| Charos | George, Angela, Terry, Danae | 89 Mill Street 83 Mill Street * 85 Mill Street * 87 Mill Street * 84 Mill Street 42 Mill Street |
George part owner of 42, 84, 89 Angela part owner of 84, 89 Terry part owner of 42, 84, 89 Danae part owner of 84, 89 *83, 85, 87 non-existent deeds; part of 89 Mill Street |
| Charos | Peter, Vaila | 80 Mill Stree t126 Mill Street |
|
| Camelon | Doris | 29 Union Street South | |
| Carroll | Richard | 66 Mill Street | |
| Cavanagh | Jeff, Kelly | 11 Main Street West 35 Main Street West |
Old Mill Apartments Enerdu |
| Currie | Gladys | 33 Union Street South | |
| Devlin | Brenda | 11 Union Street North | |
| Dupuis | Mike | 16 Main Street West | Canadian Hydro Components Ltd |
| Farrell | Mark | 61 Mill Street 63 Mill Street * 98 Mill Street |
MJ Asset Management Ltd. * 63 Mill Street non-existent deed; part of 61 Mill Street* |
| Gallagher | Brian | Vacant lot * betweenThe Hub & Branje |
* Not in proposed HCD |
| Gamble | Reg | 74 Mill Street 52 Brae Street* |
* Property does not exist |
| Guirard | Kevin, Cynthia | 54 Mill Street * 56 Mill Street |
* 54 Mill Street non-existent deed; part of 56 Mill Street |
| Hamilton | Carol | 31 Bridge Street | |
| Jackson | Carol | 42 Bridge Street | Jetspike Corporation |
| Kerry | John | 24 Mill Street * 26 Mill Street |
* 24 Mill Street non-existent deed; part of 26 Mill Street |
| Killeen | Paul | 81 Mill Street | |
| Kontogiannis | Jim | 70 Bridge Street | |
| Labenek | Walter | 98 Queen Street | |
| Lawrence | Bill, Stella | 4 Union Street North | |
| Lockhart | Wayne | 21 Bridge Street 23 Bridge Street * 94 Mill Street 94A Mill Street ** 96 Mill Street ** 83 Farm Street*** |
* 23 Bridge Street non-existent deed; part of 21 Bridge Street ** 94A & 96 Mill Street non-existent deeds; part of 94 Mill Street *** Not in proposed HCD area |
| Loosemore | Chris | 38 Main Street East | |
| Majaury | David, Dianne | 48 Main Street West 4 Coleman Street* |
* 4 Coleman Street non-existent; part of 48 Main Street West |
| Marshall | Ross, Brenda | 30 Union Street South | Couple are in Texas |
| McKay | George, Margaret | 68 Mill Street | |
| McPhail | Benita | 35 Union Street South | |
| Munro | Clark | 25 Union Street 27 Union Street |
|
| Munro | Eldon | 34 Mill Street | Mississippi Mills Masonic Lodge; Eldon Munro is not the property owner |
| Murphy | Pamela | 103 Queen Street | |
| Orfanos | Julia, Angelica, Steve | 93 Mill Street | Owner but did not sign Signed but not an owner Signed but not an owner |
| Orrell | Justin | 9 Union Street South | |
| Ralph, Downey | Jonathan, Phil | 48 Mill Street | Gale Real Estate – property owner did not sign; Clark Munro signed |
| Rodger, Davey | Donald, Sandra | 23 Union Street South | |
| Solowjew | Greg, Nancy | 76 Main Street East * 78 Main Street East ** |
* 76 Main Street East non-existent deed; part of 78 Main Street East ** Not in proposed HCD ** |
| Tait | Brenda | 21 Union Street South | |
| Teskey, Gaw | Garth, Marjorie | 36 Main Street West 5 Coleman Street * |
* 5 Coleman non-existent deed; part of 36 Main Street West |
| Wilson | Robert, Frances | Main & Mary Street * 52 Main Street West 56 Main Street West |
* Vacant lot non-existent deed; part of 52 Main Street West |
| Wendzick | Harry | 30 Mill Street | |
| Zhao | Mary | 11 Bridge Street |
Notes: Of 63 properties identified in the signed letters of intent (of property owners wishes not to enter into an agreement for heritage purposes with the Town) submitted by Brian Gallagher on January 13, 2015 to Commitee of the Whole, closer examination of those letters reveal the following information:
- 4 of those identified properties were not in the proposed HCD;
- 1 property does not exist;
- 12 were not individual properties but were part ofn other already identified properties;
- The total number of properties is 46 not 63 as identified in the letters of intent (error of 27%);
- There are 38 sets of property owners; not 57 individual property owners (as identified in the letters of intent submitted) and not 70 individual property owners (as reported in recent newspaper articles).
The following properties are not in the proposed HCD area:
- Brian Gallagher’s vacant lot between The Hub and Branje;
- Solowjew’s property at 76-78 Main; and
- Lockhart’s property at 83 Farm Street, not in HCD.
Note: Reg Gamble’s property identified at 52 Brae Street does not exist.
