Overview

The Downtown Collingwood Heritage Conservation District has a recognizable heritage character, based on a large inventory of commercial and residential buildings constructed over a relatively short period, and sharing qualities of scale, materials, detail, and a general style of 19th-century eclectic brick architecture.

The heritage character of the District is of significant economic value to the growing tourism sector of the local economy, and merits preservation and enhancement. The heritage character of the District is enhanced by streetscapes, open spaces, and vistas. Its preservation depends on the economic benefits provided by support infrastructure such as parking, laneways, pathways, and rear access to Main Street stores

-- The preservation and enhancement of the heritage character of Downtown Collingwood requires policies concerning existing Heritage Buildings, new developments, and streetscape and infrastructure in the District.

Policies For Heritage Buildings

Conservation of existing heritage buildings in the district requires policies to encourage and promote their economic use, their maintenance and preservation, and the restoration of heritage elements where they have been damaged or removed.

-- Loss of heritage through neglect is an avoidable tragedy. Regular inspections for building maintenance and fire prevention should be undertaken, and regulations in this regard should be enforced.

-- The original construction and detail on heritage buildings should be retained and repaired whenever possible.

-- Alterations to heritage buildings should include removal of later unsympathetic work and restoration of original features and detail.

-- Loss of heritage resources through demolition should be discouraged.
 

Policies For New Development

New development should complement and enhance the heritage character of the District. New buildings should be sympathetic in siting, scale, material, texture and general design to the heritage buildings around them.

-- New development should be limited to vacant sites or to sites currently occupied by unsympathetic buildings. Even the most skillfully executed heritage-friendly building cannot replace the value of a real heritage building.

-- New development within the District should be consistent with the guidelines outlined in Section 9 - Non-Heritage Buildings.

Policies For Townscape & Infrastructure

The 1980 streetscape improvements to Hurontario Street enhance the heritage character of the Street, and serve as physical markers reinforcing the special quality of the street. In order to reinforce the District's identity, improvements of a similar quality should be undertaken throughout the District.

-- Upgrades and replacements to street and pedestrian lighting fixtures, street furniture and amenities shall be evaluated in terms of their impact on the heritage character of the District.

-- The standards for sidewalk paving, lighting, street furniture and amenities on Hurontario Street shall be extended throughout the commercial areas of the District. Similar standards shall be developed for the house-form areas of the district, taking into account the different context in those areas.

Lanes And Pathways

The formal and informal lanes behind the shops on Hurontario Street provide access for servicing the shops, but also form part of the pedestrian networks that brings shoppers to Hurontario Street from the parking lots on Pine and Ste. Marie Streets. As such, they should be maintained and made attractive. The east-west pedestrian paths are particularly important as mid-block connectors between the Hurontario shops and the supporting parking. They support the preservation of heritage character by enhancing the economic viability of the District.

-- The most important path is Schoolhouse Lane, which feeds two large public parking lots to the most built-up block of the main shopping street. The enhancement of Schoolhouse Lane and other east-west pedestrian pathways, by paving, signage and lighting, shall be encouraged.

-- The rears of the Hurontario Street shops are highly visible across the parking lots, and they form a significant part of the townscape. They offer an attractive opportunity for intensifcation of retail presence and display. Improvements and enhancements to the rears of the Hurontario Street stores, complementary to the heritage character of the District, shall be encouraged.

Parking

-- Preservation of the heritage character of the District depends on its economic health. The recognition of the Downtown as one of Collingwood’s two shopping nodes in OPA 37, means that the Downtown must compete with the Western Node, and convenient parking is necessarily a factor in the competition. The Downtown Core is tightly bound by built up areas, mostly of heritage buildings, and demolition of these for parking lots would be detrimental to the heritage character of the District. Studies for provision for future parking requirements in multi-level structures should be initiated.

-- Parking structures shall be designated to restore the feeling of enclosure of a commercial street. Provision of ground-floor shops and even second-floor apartments along street edge should be considered.

Areas Of Special Interest

-- Churches: All of the older churches in the district have heritage value, and should be maintained.

-- The Collingwood Museum: Although the building is a modified reporduction of the original train station, it has inherent heritage value for the historical importance of the railroad in the origins and development of the Town. Its historical relationship to the Downtown should be recreated by restoring its town-side entrance facing St. Paul Street.

-- The Spit: The railroad spit and the grain elevator are also of major significance to the Town's origins and history. The excellent work of creating a historical marine park should continue. The Watts Boat Shed should be relocated to the park and restored.

-- The Lakefront: Planning, Zoning and Site Plan Control policies for this area shall ensure that future development is not detrimental to the heritage character of the Downtown.
 

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