City administration and the heritage advisory committee are continuing to review how best to protect at-risk heritage properties and promote the importance of such locations to affected homeowners.
During the committee’s most recent meeting, city administration gave an overview of all at-risk heritage properties that city hall is monitoring and for which it is researching solutions to address these sites. The main issue appears to be the cost to maintain these properties, including insurance, keeping the buildings up to code and following zoning guidelines.
The committee and municipal officials discussed the importance of raising awareness about the significance of heritage in Moose Jaw and the different options to promote this awareness, as well as possible incentives to help make the purchase and upkeep of historic properties more feasible, said the minutes, which city council received and file during its Jan. 15 regular meeting.
Committee members debated possible solutions and/or incentives to this issue, such as researching how other cities handle the situation, updating some of Moose Jaw’s bylaws around heritage properties and derelict buildings and providing tax incentives to buyers for the purchase of heritage buildings.
“Members mentioned an interest in showing their support for the upkeep of the CPR Station building downtown, as it is a staple of the historic façade of downtown Moose Jaw. The committee plans to focus on bringing public awareness to this issue,” the report added.
War-time houses
With 2025 being the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the committee discussed the idea of recognizing the heritage of community war-time houses via a public post about a different house each month in that year, the minutes said.
Heritage awards
The categories include:
- Stewardship: This category recognizes individuals who care for a heritage property long-term and demonstrate that they have taken measures to protect, maintain, or stabilize the existing structure and materials, form, and integrity of the site.
- Restoration: This category recognizes individuals who accurately reveal, recover, or represent the state of a historic place as it appeared at a given period in its history. In the process of doing so, the individual must also take measures to protect its heritage value.
- Adaptive Re-use: This category recognizes individuals who make possible the continued use of a historic place through repair, alterations, and/or additions to the structure while protecting its heritage value.
- Advocacy or Heritage Education: This category recognizes the efforts of individuals or groups who advocate for heritage or who promote the conservation of a heritage site. Additionally, this category considers those who increase public awareness of heritage issues.
- Sympathetic New Construction: This category recognizes new designs that are created while respecting the heritage character of an associated property, immediate context, or neighbourhood. Considerations consider the compatibility of the new building or construction with the heritage character of the streetscape, setting, or neighbourhood and architectural design, scale, form, materials used, and the application of minimal intervention.
- Heritage Tradespeople/Craftspeople: This category recognizes the skills of an individual or team among the trades and craft professionals involved in, or relative to, a heritage conservation project.
The deadline for nominations is 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 9, and awards will be presented in March at a date to be determined.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Jan. 29.
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