Demolition of Portugal Cove-St. Philip's church will likely be approved: deputy mayor

The Town of Portugal Cove-St. Philip's will be voting Tuesday evening whether to approve the demolition permit for a 120-year-old Anglican church in the community that has been at the centre of a showdown.

For more than five years, the local Anglican diocese and The Church By the Sea, a group of residents trying to save the building, have been arguing over about the church's future, and if it should be torn down.

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The town recently offered to mediate talks between the two sides about the church's future, but according to Deputy Mayor Gavin Will the diocese said it wasn't interested.

Will said without any talks between the two sides, the town must now vote to approve or reject the diocese application to demolish the old church.

According to Will, it's unlikely the town will block the permit.

"My reading is of course that, yes, the majority will vote in favour of it, but one never knows," he said.

The  Newfoundland and Labrador Historic Trust president Peter Jackson had asked the town to delay voting for a month or two to allow opponents an opportunity to fundraise $150,000 to offer the diocese to prevent tearing it down.

Money not the issue

However, Will said the issue around the church has nothing to do with money and a delay is unlikely.

"The central problem here is not money, the problem here is actually control. The diocese owns the church, the church is situated in the middle of a cemetery, the town cannot expropriate the land in a cemetery nor can we purchase the land," said Will.

"That leaves us with very limited options at that point. If this was sitting by the side of a road, if there were no graves sitting under the building, then perhaps the town could have taken something taken some action."

Will added the previous town council designated the structure a heritage property, but there was no further work done to otherwise categorize or authorize that designation.

Without other options, Will said he will be voting "with much regret" Tuesday to approve demolition.

"That does not mean that perhaps some options might be put forward by one side or the other that's acceptable and certainly I think I can speak for all councils when I say that we're all really open to ideas. But at the end of the proverbial day, we have to make a decision," he said