Bluewater Council Getting Ready To Finalize Plan For Heritage District

by Bob Montgomery

A committee that was formed to update the plan for the Heritage District in Bayfield is just about ready to take their final report to Bluewater council.

Bayfield Ward Councillor Bill Whetstone is a member of that committee and says they've been working on a new plan for about a year now and the reason for that is that the current plan is significantly outdated. One example of that is the requirement that property owners in the Heritage District must use original material for any work being done on the property. “Original material, to be able to source it now, is probably very hard to do, is not cost effective and we want to be able to maintain the look of our Heritage District because that's a big attraction from a tourism perspective. But there are alternatives now, so many new materials out there still look old, so we're trying to work with the businesses and the property owners to come up with a solution that works while still maintaining the character that the village of Bayfield is known for.”

One of the other changes being proposed addresses signage. In the past, business owners had to choose from a range of colours that were accepted under the existing plan. That really doesn't make much sense if a business owner's brand isn't one of the colours that was permitted and it didn't make sense to ask a business owner to change the logo to conform with the colours permitted under the Heritage District Plan. Under the updated plan, they would be able to continue to use their brand and their colour.

They're also taking a look at the current process and adjusting it so that not everything would have to come to the Heritage Committee for approval. Some minor items could be approved by staff while major items would still go the Heritage Committee and then to council for approval. The committee is recommending that all of the buildings fall into one of three categories. The first would be buildings that clearly had heritage attributes, another group would be buildings that do not have heritage attributes and the third group would be buildings that were not heritage buildings but did have characteristics of a heritage building. Different rules would apply to the buildings in each of those categories.

It's the last stipulation that seems to be getting the most push back. Some people feel it would be easier if the same conditions apply to all three categories. Whetstone says they've had lots of comments and feedback from residents that will all come back to council at their next meeting for any changes to be finalized.