St. Paul's Anglican Church will get a little help from the city with its roof replacement project.
City council recently voted to approve a $20,000 heritage façade grant for the project, which includes removal and disposal of the old shingles containing asbestos, water-proofing the end wall, installing a sprinkler system and seismic upgrading.
The project is expected to cost about $260,000 and work has already begun at the church on Chapel Street in downtown Nanaimo.
The Heritage Façade Improvement Grant program, created by council in 2003, provides financial incentives to encourage rehabilitation and enhancement of heritage buildings in the city's downtown core.
Because the total 2013 budget for the program is $20,000 and a $10,000 grant was approved in March for another project, council voted to commit $10,000 from the Council Contingency Fund to cover the shortfall in the program's budget.
The grant includes a number of conditions: the owner must agree to register a Heritage Conservation Covenant on the property title for a five-year term that prohibits demolition or alteration of the building unless approved by the city; work must be completed within a year of grant approval; work must be of good quality, meeting appropriate building and fire codes, comply with existing bylaws and pass municipal inspections; and signage crediting the city's contribution will be provided and must be displayed for a mutually agreed-upon period of time.
Built in 1931, St. Paul's Anglican Church is the only identified local example of Gothic revival architecture. The current building is the third church on the site and the original congregation began in 1861.
The land was donated by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1859.