London's next heritage district - TONIGHT

Tonight at City Hall, staff will present a draft report on the Blackfriars/Petersville Heritage Conservation District Study to the Planning & Environment Committee.  The public participation meeting will commence no sooner than 5:15 PM (17h15), so if you have any interest in this study, make sure you get there in time.  The report holds much fascinating information, but I'll boil things down here.

Below shows the original study area undertaken by the consultants:

and this map shows the area proposed for heritage designation (in pink):

Basically, this adds heritage designation for the former villages of Petersville and Kensington (once amalgamated as London West before joining London).  The consultants decided that this area meets the criteria required for designation, while the other areas in yellow and blue remain strong contenders for future study.  Staff will request London Council to endorse this tentative boundary and to give authorization to prepare conservation guidelines for the proposed area, while asking that the other areas remain in consideration for study.

Should this pass, the study would recommend heritage status under the Ontario Heritage Act, and would make the Blackfriars/Petersville district the sixth such in the city.  This important move protects the architectural, cultural, and environmental features of the neighbourhood.

If you have any comments and can't make tonight's meeting, do send me a line as I am one of the community members acting as a resource to the consulting team, which includes getting feedback from residents to pass along for consideration.

For more information, check out the City of London's Web page for the study at:

http://www.london.ca/business/Planning-Development/land-use-applications/Pages/blackfriars-petersville-study.aspx

Hope to see a good crowd in the gallery tonight!