Dear Editor:
I was intrigued and pleased to read about “reasonable heritage” at work in the“Six-storey plan for eatery site” in the Oct. 26 edition of the Record for the former La Rustica and La Spaghetteria site.
You say “two homes on the site were built in 1919 but were modified through the years so their historical value has ‘been significantly’ diminished … staff don’t consider demolition of the homes to be a concern.” Makes sense.
Now some questions:
- Where was this “reasonable heritage” thinking at city hall, when they unilaterally designated approximately 500 pre-1941 properties to have advance heritage protection with the Queen’s Park Heritage Conservation Area (HCA)?
- Isn’t it amazing what a difference feet (the rough width of Sixth Street) and a couple of months makes?!
Those of us in favour of design guidelines and reasonable heritage suggested that properties start in the limited protection category. Doesn’t that sound reasonable? Is anyone listening? I hope so, because next year it’s 2018!
Mark Fox, New Westminster
