Heritage Designation in Your Community

[Willa]

What does it entail ? What are the advantages/disadvantages ?

In a different thread Jacquie Jet mentioned that heritage designation helped reduce their property tax.

How does the process work in your community ?

I just received notice that my property now has official heritage designation. I started the process close to a year ago, with an inquiry to the heritage dept. at city hall. I sent them some photos and notes, they did some research about the original owners. A few months later, two representatives came out to have a look around, inside and out, and brought me more research about the original owners and occupants. More research and descriptions were assembled, then a notice of intent was posted in the local paper, with a time for anyone to object. I was notified of the designation via email, and the city will install a plaque. The city offers a small grant ($ 500.00) for repairs and upkeep that heritage properties can apply for every second year - but not all applications will receive this grant. The exterior details that were noted are protected. What protection actually means is that if I (or a subsequent owner) wanted to change or remove the noted exterior details, the city could step in, sort of, to attempt to to halt this, and there might be fines. As far as I know, there are no tax breaks for heritage properties in my community.

[mjt]

Our house is on the National Register of Historic Places. As far as I know, this offers no benefits, nor any restrictions.

Our house is also in a Historic Preservation District. As far as I can tell there are no tax breaks, nor grants available due to this designation. The only restrictions are that any exterior work must be approved by the Heritage Preservation Commission. Also in scope is any "hardscape" - patios, driveways, fences, walls, etc. This has not proved particularly onerous for us as we have tried to stay in keeping with the style of the house. .

[phil]

when it is assessed , they will consider other similar properties in your area that have sold, the lot size, for mine the building is only 10% or so of that. I think you can look up your neighbors by address but only for a period of time around when the notices come out. perhaps applying heritage designation will drop the value , since part of the way land is evaluated is for it's potential for future use. If the property value is decreased by a legal encumbrance on the property then the taxes will reflect the new value.
I dont know how much this would affect the value. I wonder if you could be able to look at statistics of other local properties that have undergone this transfer to see if the value changed after it was applied to the title. The advice I got from others that I have spoken to who have the heritage assignment was don't do it, because it will decrease your own property value and the benefits outweigh the hit you take from the financial aspect.
Perhaps it is sort of a way to try to "rule from the grave" because the assignment attaches to the title the next time the property is transferred to a new owner. In some cases people care more about the future of the building than how it affects their value.
Much like an easement, it defines some stipulations which are not easy to undo, so a potential buyer would be considering this in their evaluation and really it is the market and supply and demand that sets the value, not the city.

by comparison a lot of the houses near me get taken down and replaced with larger buildings, this increases their value so often it is done by developers who buy land and contract out the construction and sell higher, basically flipping the property. I dont plan to do that myself but the value of my land is partly determined by what is on it but also by it's future potential.

I could realistically see , for example , a corporation that wants to build a condo development approaching 3 owners to try to amass a large enough plot to build a big condo development or a commercial store. I had a discussion with my neighbors and we said that if we get such a proposition we will discuss it among each other. this is happening near me on a fairly regular basis. as an example the property might be valued at 1 million per lot but if three properties were amassed then it may be worth 6 million to a developer so they may pay way higher than market value. a situation like that would be quite emotional and difficult because my decision would divided between selling at an elevated price and reaping the financial reward , but with the knowledge that this would bring the wrecking ball to a project of years of effort.

government assessments only mean so much because they dont really go into each home to evaluate them. Many have issues that are not reported but would come up in the evaluation of the buyer upon inspection and some do lots of interior upgrades which are also off the radar. While the assessed value would be part of a persons evaluation of value a lot of it is also based upon the fact that you are investing in not only what you would do with the land but also the future development potential in years to come.

I thought I'd put up a garage when I bought , but the land is so valuable that i'm thinking that would actually be a bad move. It may be worth more with the space and no garage because a future buyer could then build a lane way house. I dont really want to take on all that expense right now but it definitely affects land value. Ive been thinking of trying to see if it might be workable to build a garage to the size and shape allowed for a lane way house so that a potential owner or me could reform the property from a garage to a lane way house. I may be able to skip the plumbing and only install basic electrical, these things can be added later. I'm somewhat limited by height and size but I think I can build about 900 square feet which is enough. If I add on to the house or build a garage this reduces future flexibility of use. Ive been watching a neighboring lot. they cleared the house build as big as possible so it will be a dwelling for more than one family now they have the hold for the foundation of a garage and it looks like it will be a just a normal garage, just going by the footprint. perhaps they used up the potential of a lane way house by building the main house larger. some areas may have a rule that says if you put in suites in your house you can't have a laneway house as well. this and other similar rules will vary a great deal by area.

tending a lot of city hall meetings and getting on the mailing list for the residents society would bring more info. Its possible to go and watch others who are trying to get approvals and that's probably a good way to get more educated about how things work, but it takes time to attend them. Most of those meetings are open to the public and some make sort of a hobby of attending them. I think I'd do those things more if I felt I was about to make a move with an investment such as a garage or lane way house. I think the dynamics may be quite different if you analyze one area to another. Like with law a lot of the deals refer to prescience in making judgements of what is allowed. I think I will see more laneway houses spring up, so they pave the way. From what I know about it all I'd be scared to take on heritage assignment because I think it wold decrease the value of my land and the benefits are weak as compared to the costs to me so it didn't seem like it would be a good financial decision for me. others I have spoken to seem to reflect that opinion. some suggested just making my own plaque. This may be more than just about the value of Willa's property. Perhaps there is some satisfaction in saying your house has been assigned heritage status. any personal satisfaction may not translate to dollars and cents. Perhaps that designation could even increase value in some particular situations. I dont see it as an asset to the title as it is easy to get the city to put it in, but hard to take it back out. I think perhaps will a did this for other than financial reasons. She's put a lot of work into it and wants to see that work preserved and that is admirable from my viewpoint.

in my case I think I'd like to build a separate house at the back of my lot so perhaps that also allows me to save the footprint f the house and not expand it. the way I see it creating a laneway house does not hurt the heritage appeal of the building but of course it would reduce the usability of the space it occupies. I like the idea of creating a sort of scaled down copy of my house so it ties in and looks appropriate. using that as a garage for the next 20 years and then it would increase the potential if it were built to suit the transformation from a garage to a nice living space for one or two people. I want o make use of the potential but also I'd really enjoy having a shop I could pull cars into and be warm for my projects during retirement. for now I just use the basement as a workshop so at least I can do a lot of the things I'd like to.

creation of a laneway house may be permissible even with heritage assignment. Many others either raise their houses or put an addition on the back. so long as I dont have such assignments an addition is possible, Even if they are it is still probably possible if you go through the right channels to get permission its just more red tape. From my cite's perspective they are in business, they want to add more density this brings in more taxes.

i was at a meeting where a neighbor near me wanted to convert an old house over to commercial space, they allowed them to tear down the house and build commercial, they had to pay for some streetlights in the process so that was a trade off the city bargained for. It was supposed to be a deco building but so far as I can see it really is not , it has a rounded corner, big deal. I'd like to see them put more stipulations on building style but to really have to have a say you need to be involved and attend.

[Gothichome]

Willa, first of, happy to hear your home is now designated,congratulations, any work you do in restoration will not be messed up in the future.
Here in Chatham, I have heard there is a $1000.00 reduction in your property taxes. I have not looked into that though. We are not ready to go that route yet.