http://www.thespec.com/news-story/44...-park-facades/
Developer David Blanchard is appealing property standards orders against five buildings facing Gore Park he wants to tear down.
The orders relate to the maintenance of the facades — now under a heritage designation — and the removal of a barricade around the site. They were issued in January.
In an interview Thursday, Blanchard said he is appealing the orders and carrying through with fighting the heritage designation, imposed by city council in December.
He's had a demolition permit on the properties since January 2013.
"We can't afford to keep the fronts of those buildings," he said, saying it would cost $2 million to preserve them.
Under property standards legislation, owners can appeal if they disagree with the orders or need more time to comply.
The appeal will go to the property standards appeal committee in May, says Councillor Jason Farr.
Blanchard "has every right to make an appeal," Farr added.
Blanchard, managing director of a consortium that owns the buildings at 18-28 King St. E., said the plan is for a two-phase development on the site. The first would be a "small building" at the front of the property for about 20 condos and 5,000 square feet of commercial space.
Phase 2 would be a bigger, as-yet undetermined, mixed use development.
"We need to deal with this heritage issue and get it over with."
The buildings date back to the 1840s.
Farr is disappointed by the heritage appeal, saying he had many meetings with the property owners trying to come to a compromise that would save the brick facades, save the Gore Park "street wall" and provide more than $1 million in city heritage incentives.
The meetings were always amicable, says Farr, but no plans were brought forward that incorporated the facades in a development plan. He says the proof is clear that condos with preserved heritage features are in bigger demand and fetch higher prices.
"I don't think the owners were interested in doing anything, but taking them down. What we'll be left with is a gaping hole and another path of asphalt."
Hamilton municipal heritage committee chair Alyssa Denham-Robinson says the committee wants to see the facades saved, but the developer has a right to appeal the designation.
"All the evidence will work itself out. The process is being followed," she said.
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). There is a heritage committee. The process of designating heritage properties has been glacial - nothing designated since 2008, and there is a backlog. The city doesn't really know what it has either and is undertaking a study for the downtown - there's a 
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