Riverdale may become a Heritage Conservation District
The Toronto and East York Community Council made the recommendation at its meeting Monday, July 7, capping a three-year push by local residents to conserve the character of their community.
If approved, the area will be bounded by First Avenue to the north, the Canadian National Railway line and Tiverton Avenue to the east, Dundas Street East to the south and West Avenue and parts of De Grassi Street in the west.
With the designation comes restrictions on what homeowners can do to their properties and if they're engaged in restoring, exactly how that restoration will take place. In some places, like the Beach, heritage designations have been controversial for that reason.
But Jonathan Mousley, one of the residents who worked toward the designation, said that won't likely be a problem with this community.
"It's a very small community. We're a close community with a lot of homes close together," he said. "I think a lot of people moved into the area because of the heritage nature of it."
The neighbourhood is rich in cultural and architectural heritage. The streets there are among the first to be developed east of the Don River, between the 1880s and the First World War.
According to a city heritage report, the homes are a mixture of Second Empire row houses, "bay-'n'-gable" style homes and Edwardian four-square designs. The neighbourhood was solidly working class, and heritage staff compare it to neighbourhoods such as Cabbagetown and Harbord Village.
It wasn't the homes that initially motivated the community, however, but the threat of the loss of St. Matthew's Church, which had been threatened with redevelopment. That worry is past now.
"But it spurred us on," Mousley said. "Now we're looking at the value of the homes. We had some very well-known architects that had built homes on the streets including E.J. Lennox , who was quite a well-known Toronto architect. So we have some real gems here too that are worth preserving."
Mousley said the group deliberately kept the area small, and given the ease with which the designation is coming about, he admitted to wondering if they would have done better to cast a wider net.
"We kept it small because we were advised it was the best way to go but in retrospect I would have liked to have seen all of First Avenue and Degrassi included, given the support we had in the community," he said. "And west - and then hopefully north to the Danforth. Really, all of Riverdale is a gem of an area that should be protected."
Toronto Council meets July 15 to consider the issue.
