Quote:
Originally Posted by Changing City
What would they be punished for? The City has told them to demolish it. The City could 'punish' them if Holborn don't demolish it, by having it removed, and charging them for the work. They'll pay one way or the other for the cost of demolition, but it's not a protected heritage building - there's no Heritage Revitalization Agreement, and only Holborn could initiate that. They seem not to want to do that, given the state they allowed the building to get into
Charging them for the loss of the SRO rooms is a seperate arguement, but it's not clear exactly what the situation is. Holborn seem to think that status lapsed, but the City don't agree. No doubt that'll end in court.
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Those are just the technicalities, but an extreme fine can be meted out by the City for the neglect of a beautiful heritage building if they really want to. It does not matter that the building isn't officially "protected", because all parties know that it has been there for more than a century. That would set the precedence for future heritage building owners, including the City, to take good care of the structure. If the City can fine owners for graffiti and other forms of neglect including uncleared snow, then I don't see why they can't do the same for the neglect of old buildings, with fines matching the state of disrepair due to the owner's apathy and irresponsibility. Even better still: the City can bring in a team of engineers and contractors to assess and repair the building, then charge the owner accordingly.
Like I said before, the City is technically at fault as well since they have not been doing much to ensure the constant care for these rare structures around town. There should be a team of heritage building inspectors that periodically do spot-checks on older buildings, and fine landowners who fail to do so. Other than ensuring the longevity of heritage structures, safety is a relevant issue here. Perhaps a lot of heritage buildings would have been saved, and lives recovered if we could prevent some of the fires from happening.
Alas, constantly converting heritage structures to house the homeless by the City and Province will only hasten the pace of their destruction. They need to acknowledge that too.
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