The proposed boundary for a Downtown Collingwood Heritage Conservation District is shown on the map below. The criteria for establishing district boundaries takes account of the heritage resources of Collingwood, and considers the contexts provided by historical development, the heritage character of existing streetscapes, existing patterns of use and movement, existing Official Plan and zoning policies, and public input from the meeting of 23 January 2002.

The criteria for establishing the boundary:

1) To establish a sense of continuity and to make the District readily identifiable, the boundaries should encompass a contiguous area.

2) Properties designated under Part IV of the Heritage Act as having historical or architectural value or interest cannot be included in the Heritage Conservation District. However, such properties that are within or near to the contiguous area serve as indicators of the dates and architectural styles and features that the District should seek to preserve.

3) The District should include areas that are architecturally and historically significant in the development of the Town centre, including buildings, landscape elements, transportation routes, vistas, and urban open spaces.

4) The District should encompass an area sufficient to ensure that redevelopment or expansion of the central business area, including supporting infrastructure such as parking facilities, will occur in a way that maintains and enhances the heritage character that the District Plan seeks to preserve.

Proposed District Boundary

District Resources

The District Boundary seeks to delineate an aera particularly rich in heritage resources. The map shows the heritage resources within the proposed District, classified as to their value to the heritage character of the District. The classes are, in descending heritage value:

A) Exceptional Heritage Building: a building having unusual heritage value, due to architectural merit, or association with historical events or persons. These are indicated on the map by a dot.

B) Heritage Building: a building pre-dating 1918. Most commercial buildings in downtwon Collingwood were built in the 30-year period from 1880 to 1910, and are sylistically similar. These are indicated on the map by being un-shaded.

C) "Context" Building: a building sympathetic to heritage character by virtue of materials, scale, or detail. some of these buildings are quite recent. These are indicated on the map by light shading.

D) Unsympathetic Building: a building in conflict with heritage character by virtue of materials, scale, or detail. These are indicated on the map by dark shading.

E) Hidden Treasure: a building with modern alterations that may conceal a heritage building of merit. This classification is often a matter of educated guesswork: some of these may not turn out to treasures after all. These are indicated on the map with a question mark in a circle.

Further Considerations

To a great extent the District boundary replicates the boundary of the Downtown Core as it appears in Collingwood's Official Plan. As noted above, OPA 37 explicitly calls for designation of this area as a Heritage Conservation District. the proposed district extends into the Official Plan's Downtown Core Fringe in several places:

-- The inclusion of both sides of Pine Street south of Second Street conforms to the B.I.A. boundary, with the addition of 67 through 75 Third Street which are zoned for commercial use though outside the B.I.A. This area is rich in heritage resources, contains a number of commercial uses, and may in future be significant for use intensification in support of a prospering Downtown Core.

-- The inclusion of the north side of Fourth Street reflects the concern that heritage character is experienced in streetscapes, and where it is sensible to do so, both sides of a street should be included in a District.

-- The inclusion of the Admiral Collingwood School at 55 Hume Street was requested from the floor and broadly supported at the public meeting of 23 January 2002. (note: the school has since been torn down)

-- The inclusion of the Anglican Church lands in the Ontario/Elgin/Ste.Marie Street triangle conforms to the B.I.A.. It is a valuable heritage resource in its own right, and is a civic resource as a landmark and green urban space, which is emphasized by its location at the convergence of the two street grids and at the end of Schoolhouse Lane visual and pedestrian axis.
 

-- The inclusion of the residential areas to the south and east of the Anglican Church, on Elgin Street and Ontario Street, provide heritage protection for the "village green" quality of the Church triangle. The residences are almost entirely of heritage merit, and their inclusion improves the continity of the District.

-- The inclusion of the town-owned Museum and spit properties incorporates buildings and lands that already publicly memorialize and epitomize the railroad, shipping and ship-building industries that are the essence of Collingwood's history and the foundation of its original existence. In addition, the inclusion of these lands provides a firm and comprehensible eastern getaway to the District on a principal approach route.
 

Two areas which are included in the Official Plan's Downtown Core area are excluded from the proposed District:

-- The exclusion of the property on the south side of Huron Street immediately to the west of the Museum land is recommended due to the lack of heritage value in the building, and the historical land-use division on the line of the former railbed, which forms the eastern edge of the Museum land.

-- The exclusion of the lands north of the road allowances for Huron, First, Hurontario and Pine Streets is recommended due to the current status of most of the area, which are designated as "development" lands in the zoning by-law. Various development ideas have been proposed for these lands, but they currently lack even the basic skeleton of an established street layout. we believe that inclusion of this area is premature, given this status, and that any decision on the extension of the District into these development lands rightly belongs in the planning process that will apply in future under the Official Plan and Site Plan Review regimes.
 

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