City of Toronto scrambling to save mansion as deadline looms to designate it a heritage site

The City of Toronto is scrambling to protect a 137-year-old Victorian mansion from a developer who's planning a 69-storey condo building for the site.

But the deadline to do so is just a few weeks away. And if council doesn't vote to designate the sprawling two-and-a-half storey house as a heritage site at its meeting on Wednesday, the building at 94 Isabella Street, near Jarvis Street, could be demolished.

"It puts a lot of pressure on," said Mary MacDonald, the city's senior manager of heritage planning. "It does create a complex kind of playbook of what the timing is."

In the past, the city would have had an indefinite amount of time to designate the property a heritage site, which protects it from demolition. But the developer filed the application last May, and under new provincial rules that came into effect in the summer of 2021 as part of the More Homes More Choices Act, the city has just 90 days from the time of a developer's application to make that decision.

And that can cause problems, according to MacDonald.

"Nobody wants [the deadline] to come that quickly," she said.

"So we've been extending the time, continuing the conversation but there's no doubt that when you have limits on time you're in a constant state of prioritization. It is complicated with a city this big and the number of significant properties."

Adam Wynne, a historian with the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association, agrees the 90-day window can bring added pressures to historians and planners, because it takes time, research, and personnel to determine a building's cultural and historic value.

"It's a very short period of time," he said.

"And often it seems to favour the developer, in that you have a very short period of time to compile research to advocate for the property and to meet statutory deadlines, like preservation board meetings and council meetings."

The city's 90-day deadline for 94 Isabella passed last summer. But Capitol Developments gave the city an extension until Dec. 31. Last week, the city's preservation board voted to ask council to signal its intention to designate the building a heritage site. But if that doesn't happen by the end of the year, the building will be at risk of demolition.

CBC Toronto asked Coun. Chris Moise, who represents Ward 13, Toronto Centre, for his thoughts on the development and the future of 94 Isabella. He has not returned calls or emails.

Capitol Developments also hasn't responded to requests for comment. However, in documents filed with the city's planning department, the company says the new project will retain the structure's facade, along with the facades of two neighbouring buildings, in a mixed-use tower that will include 837 residential units.

MacDonald emphasizes that trying to get the mansion a heritage designation is not a sign the city is against building homes.

"It should never be a heritage versus housing discussion," she told CBC Toronto.

"We are not trying to stop housing in this city.  We can actually have it all. We can do both really really well."

According to a city staff report to the city's preservation board, the Queen Anne Revival-style house was built in 1885 for Helen McMaster, whose family founded McMaster University. It was later a private hospital, a rooming house, and a home for Jesuit priests, the report says.

The condo project in total will involve three heritage homes - at 90, 92 and 94 Isabella St. Only 94 is at issue because the other two homes were designated heritage sites in 1978, city staff say.

All three homes were originally on the city's heritage registry in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Listing offers protection

That listing offers some protections against developers, and can be a precursor to a full heritage designation.

MacDonald said the city currently has about 4,000 properties that are listed — not designated — including some of the city's best known landmarks.

"There are a whole host of reasons why things get designated and why other things are listed. some of our most important landmark properties are just listed. Convocation Hall and University College ... the Ontario Legislature is just listed. 

"There's no reason to designate a property if it isn't going to be changed or threatened."

Wynne said there's another complication that comes with the province's new 90-day deadline: It can also affect relations between city planners and developers. He said while both sides will negotiate the best way to develop a particular site over months and years, seeing a municipality suddenly apply for a heritage designation can sour those relations.

In the case of 94 Isabella, MacDonald conceded "there is certainly a danger of misunderstanding."

In conjunction with the staff report to the preservation board last week,  a letter from lawyer Adam J. Brown, who's representing Capitol Developments, was also included.

Developer 'surprised,' lawyer says

"Our client was surprised to learn that Heritage Planning Staff were moving forward to designate the site on a rushed basis," Brown writes.

"This rushed designation will also prevent the alteration of the property ... in a sensitive way. It is our client's respectful submission that given the positive dialogue that has taken place to date the recommendation to designate the site should not be adopted by council."

Asked by CBC Toronto about the pressures many municipalities are feeling under the new, 90-day window, the Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism replied in an email defending the new deadline.

 "The change encourages discussions about potential designations with proponents at an early stage to avoid designation decisions being made late in the land-use planning process," the email reads.