City of Hamilton staff are reviewing the committee that provides feedback on planning applications within the Cross-Melville Heritage Conservation District, after what staff called a lack of sufficient interest to fill the advisory committee this term.
It’s not the first time city staff have said they could not find enough volunteers for the committee, and local heritage advocates are again questioning that suggestion.
Cultural heritage program lead Alissa Golden told the Nov. 28, 2023 Hamilton municipal heritage committee meeting that staff “did not receive sufficient interest to fill the advisory committee this term” despite putting out two calls for volunteers.
“We are currently in the process of discussing the future of this advisory committee,” Golden said. “We’ll have, hopefully, next steps on this in the near future.”
Municipal heritage committee member Karen Burke, who has served as the committee’s representative on the Cross-Melville group, said during the Nov. 28 meeting she lives in Dundas but hadn’t heard about the recruitment effort.
A clerk’s office staff member told the heritage committee the CMHCD committee was included in all citizen committee recruitment material distributed on city social media and mailing lists.
Jen Racine, a resident of the heritage conservation district and member of the committee for the past 12 years, said she received an email from the city in June asking if she or anyone she knew was interested in being a member.
“I immediately sent an email response stating that I would like to continue to serve on the committee,” Racine said.
She then completed and submitted a required application.
Racine said she received another email from the city on Aug. 18, stating she had been appointed to the Cross-Melville committee for another term, which ends on Oct. 26, 2026.
“That same day, I received a ‘recall’ of that message,” Racine said.
The week of Dec. 1, Racine received an email from the city stating the recall was an error and she is one of two committee members.
Rev. Paul Vanden Brink of Grace Valley Church said on Nov. 30 he was not aware of the city reaching out to see if the congregation could provide a required ecclesiastical representative for the committee.
“I think we would be very interested to have someone participate,” Vanden Brink said.
Justin Hogeterp, chair of the CMHCD committee for the past term, did not say if he was contacted by the city about serving again.
“We are awaiting communication from the City of Hamilton regarding plans for the next term,” Hogeterp said on Nov. 30.
Dundas resident Stan Nowak, who previously served on the municipal heritage committee and was its representative on the Cross-Melville advisory committee 12 years ago, recalled when the advisory group was temporarily disbanded by the city in 2011.
“I was told that there wasn’t enough interest, even after followup by the city,” Nowak said. “I checked with as many incumbent committee members as I could and the majority of them informed me that they were interested in serving and that no outreach had been received from the city.”
Nowak questioned the suggestion that there aren’t enough interested volunteers within the district this year.
In May 2011, a motion disbanding the CMHCD committee was passed by city council.
Three months later, then Dundas city councillor Russ Powers introduced a motion rescinding the disbanding motion and restructuring the resurrected committee.
Membership was reduced from a minimum of six to three residents of the heritage district, plus a representative from one of the district’s two historic churches, a representative of the municipal heritage committee, a representative of the municipal heritage permit subcommittee and a member of city council.
A subsequent call for volunteers found a total of seven residents for the three spots, and an ecclesiastical representative was also found.
Four years later, interest was still apparently strong with six volunteers for the three resident positions in 2015.
Racine said her understanding is the committee was allowed a maximum of three district residents the past eight years.
“There were certainly many more residents that applied, and several of those had significant heritage experience, so I’m not sure why they were not selected,” Racine said.
She said the membership limit has made it difficult at times for the committee to reach quorum.
The heritage district was formed by the former Town of Dundas in 1990.
The advisory committee comments on heritage permit applications in the district, before they go to the heritage permit review subcommittee.
City spokesperson James Berry said the Cross-Melville committee is the only active heritage district advisory committee in the city, and there is no Ontario Heritage Act requirement for the committee.
Berry said two applicants came forward and both were appointed to the committee. He said recall emails were mistakenly sent to both applicants and both were notified the week of Dec. 1 they were appointed for this term.
The committee, which is still in place, is apparently short one district resident.
Berry noted there is an active Heritage Conservation District Study underway. It recommends an expansion of the existing district, around Melville Street.
“As a result of this work, the role of the Cross-Melville HCD advisory committee may be re-evaluated,” Berry said.
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