City council’s deci­sion to place a her­itage des­ig­na­tion on the Geor­gian Revial-style Maclean House comes too late to pre­serve many of its most dis­tinc­tive archi­tec­tural fea­tures, removed ear­lier by the devel­oper

Paul Moloney & Denise Balkissoon – Yourhome​.ca

Although its century-old sash win­dow frames have already been ripped out, the John B. Maclean house will be added to Toronto’s inven­tory of her­itage prop­er­ties, city coun­cil decided Tuesday.

The unan­i­mous vote is a move to force talks with the devel­oper, who wants to tear down the 1910 Geor­gian Revival home and build eight town­houses and a rental building.

Designed by archi­tect John Lyle, who was also behind Union Sta­tion and the Royal Alexan­dra The­atre, the build­ing was already on a list of poten­tial her­itage prop­er­ties when it was bought for $2.3 mil­lion in Octo­ber 2008. Two per­mit appli­ca­tions by owner 1626829 Ontario Ltd. to demol­ish it and rebuild were turned down.

Last Decem­ber, con­trac­tors tore out the win­dows and the por­tal above the front door at 7 Austin Ter­race, in what the res­i­dents’ asso­ci­a­tion believes was a cal­cu­lated move to cir­cum­vent the des­ig­na­tion process.

“They knew which archi­tec­tural ele­ments would be the main focus of a her­itage des­ig­na­tion,” said Dyan Kir­shen­baum, vice pres­i­dent of the Casa Loma Res­i­dents Asso­ci­a­tion. “It was ruth­less, arro­gant and ignorant.”

“We can’t just allow that build­ing to be torn down,” said Coun­cil­lor Joe Mihevc, who rep­re­sents the area and said he hopes council’s deci­sion will stop any fur­ther abrupt renovations.

Ide­ally, a deal can be reached that pre­serves the her­itage aspects of the prop­erty while allow­ing the owner to rede­velop it, he said.

“We hope he comes to the table and under­stands that this is an impor­tant part of the Toronto story that needs to be pre­served,” Mihevc said Tues­day after the coun­cil vote.

“The ideal sce­nario would be for the devel­oper to sit down with the city, the plan­ners, the local coun­cil­lor and the her­itage preser­va­tion peo­ple and develop a plan that meets the developer’s objec­tives but also meets the city’s objec­tives,” he said.

John Todd, pres­i­dent of 1626829 Ontario Ltd., said his com­pany is “con­sid­er­ing our options.”

Coun­cil has one more final vote on the des­ig­na­tion, before which Todd has 30 days to appeal to the Con­ser­va­tion Review Board. The board then makes a rec­om­men­da­tion to coun­cil, which can choose to fol­low or ignore it.

Todd wouldn’t say how likely it was that he would appeal.

“It just hap­pened today,” he said. “We’ll shed light on all the issues very shortly.”

Built for the founder of Maclean’s mag­a­zine, the dove-grey build­ing is now a sad sight, with its win­dows boarded up and a chain-link perime­ter in place of its orig­i­nal 100-year-old wrought-iron fence.

“Every day I looked at it and enjoyed it,” said Kir­shen­baum, who has lived across the street for 25 years. “I was absolutely delighted to hear of council’s decision.”

Coun­cil also served notice Tues­day it will seek to des­ig­nate the prop­erty under Ontario’s Her­itage Act.

Even if the final vote to des­ig­nate the prop­erty does pass at the city level, the devel­oper can appeal to the OMB.

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