More proactive attempts by the city are on the way to help protect at-risk heritage buildings as Nanaimo school district begins demolition of the 102-year-old former Harewood Elementary.
City culture and heritage planner Chris Sholberg aims to be a little more proactive when it comes to persuading property owners to consider alternatives to demolition, presenting a top-seven list of buildings most at risk of being torn down during the Culture and Heritage Commission meeting last week.
Sholberg said the pending demolition of the Harewood Elementary School got him thinking about how to get ahead of the game on other buildings in town with the potential to undergo rehabilitation or reuse, including the Malaspina Gardens care facility, Quennell School and the Franklyn Street gym.
The city is no stranger to advocating for the reuse of historical buildings. Sholberg said the city has reached out to the school district many times over the years about reuse of Harewood school, but the feeling from the district representative was the building was beyond redemption and needed to come down.
At the end of the day, it’s really in the owner’s court where they want to go with their project, he said.
The city can slap a municipal heritage designation – the highest level of protection – on properties, but in a previous interview Sholberg said the city has to be willing to pay compensation and it’s better to work with property owners.
“Sometimes folks don’t really think about that being a possibility even, of reusing a building,” he said. “What I sometimes find is if you provide enough options and ideas and examples elsewhere where things have happened, sometimes that can change the mindset.”
While Sholberg plans “soft persuasion” with property owners about options to reuse or rehabilitate buildings, he also sees a role for the community to play. If there’s a building people see as having value and it’s at risk, Sholberg says make it known it has value, go to councillors and ask them to help protect the building.
Jacquie Howardson, a board member of the Culture and Heritage Commission, said Nanaimo people have to speak up about what’s important to them and calls Sholberg’s idea of repurposing or reusing historical buildings “good practice.”
“These buildings aren’t just old buildings. They are what give Nanaimo people a sense of place and a sense of civic pride to their hometown and bit by bit that’s being eroded and I find that just a bit disheartening,” she said.