Kent Brewery Stop the Demolition

Dear Neighbour,

You may have heard in the news that the Planning and Environment Committee (PEC) agreed to designate the heritage buildings associated with the Kent Brewery. However this vote was not in the interested of preservation but rather deferral to the time of a demolition request. There was little enthusiasm to preserve the buildings. The letter below was sent to Council in rebuttal to the almost 3 hour painful discussion that occurred at PEC regarding this development.

Please Read: We have asked Mayor Ed Holder and Ward 13 Councillor John Fyfe-Millar to recuse themselves from this debate because they accept campaign donations from individuals associated with York Development. Councillor John Fyfe-Millar stated the he 'spent his weekend talking to residents' who expressed objections to more student housing in North Talbot and then dismissed their concerns at committee and endorsed the development.

We need help with this development. Please read the letter below and please consider a brief comment to councillors asking that the buildings associated with the Kent Brewery be preserved on site and respectfully incorporated into any future development design as stated in the London Plan.

Bless and Thank you

[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]; [email protected];

************************************************************************

Re: St. George and Ann Block Limited 84-86 St. George Street and 175-197 Ann Street

Planning Application File # OZ-9127



Dear Members of Council,

I would appreciate if Council could please consider the following points on the referral of Planning Application OZ-9127.

Red Herrings

The referral requires 13 ‘affordable’ housing units of varying sizes of no more than 80% of a luxury student housing development in exchange for a bonus zone. This exchange will not replace the current affordability of the existing rentals that number at least a dozen. Currently, families, students and adults occupy the rental units on Ann St. and St. George St. The referral is misguided.
Unity Project, an agency that helps low income individuals find housing, was forced to Appeal the city’s ‘affordable’ housing policy because it is not effective. They tried to talk to Council but you would not listen and resulted in an Appeal – an unnecessary cost to taxpayers and a burden to the not-for-profit agency. Please wait until a decision on the policy is made at the Ontario Land Tribunal.


A suggestion was made that the best way to celebrate the history of the Kent Brewery is to demolish the building and build a new craft brewery on site that brews traditional English Ale. Never was it suggested that a new brewery can be established in the actual original Kent Brewery. Or a craft brewery museum that celebrates London’s successful brewery history and promotes current breweries. The idea was always to push demolition.


The Kent Brewery and the homes of the Hamilton Family have been repurposed in the past from a cigar factory, cheese factory and now a rental and automotive shop, and therefore are not of heritage value. All buildings aged 150 years and older have been repurposed in some form or another. It is egregious to discredit the heritage value of these buildings simply because it has not been a brewery for 150 years continuously and the brewers died.


The Fugitive Slave Chapel has been moved therefore the Kent Brewery and the homes of the Hamilton Family can also be moved. The Chapel was pressured to move and it has suffered since and placed an unreasonable financial burden on the protectors of the Chapel.


There are already highrises on the block and therefore more can be added. This development will compromises adjacent buildings and over intensify the land. Highrises should not be built so close together. If not carefully planned, over intensification will lead to urban decay.


York Development insists that it must build an over intensified building to make it economically viable. There are dozens of community developers that make good money on building community-type housing. Please recognize this as a pressure point being applied on Council Members.


If you don’t know your history, you don’t know who you are.



Heritage

The expectation of the community is that these heritage buildings will be protected, preserved and any future development will incorporate these buildings respectfully into the design. That is the policy in the London Plan and the Near Campus Neighbourhood Policy and that's what makes interesting architecture and streetscapes. That is what happened in Hyde Park when a heritage tea house was preserved and a new high density development was approved behind the house. That is the expectation here. Just because you think these buildings are ugly doesn't mean that they deserve to be demolished. The Ontario Heritage Act protects heritage buildings from individual 'taste' because designation is not subjective. It is based on a criteria entrenched in law, and evaluated by professionals that are educated in matters of heritage.



Student Housing

North Talbot residents do not want more student housing. They have made this very clear to the Ward 13 Councillor. Both Councillor Fyfe-Millar and Councillor Hamou appeared on Rogers Cable TV together soon after being appointed to Council discussing concentrated student housing in their Wards. Councillor Fyfe-Millar stated clearly on the program that more student housing should be discouraged in neighbourhoods that have absorbed more than their fair share of temporary housing. This is true in his neighbourhood of Blackfriars and same standard needs to be applied here.

This planning application was rejected in part by staff because it is temporary student housing. It is discriminates against any person looking for housing that is not a student and concentration of temporary housing destabilizes neighbourhoods and creates deadzones for months at a time. Typically student leases are 12 month leases but occupied for 6-8 months of a year.



Land Limitations

The CP Railway wants a ‘crash wall’ built because the site is too close to the rail line and potentially places hundreds of people in harm’s way. A ‘crash wall’ is extreme.

The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change will not issue ‘water taking’ permits for this development if it interferes with the geothermal heating and cooling system of neighbouring buildings – a sustainable and climate change friendly source of energy. It will not issue permits if it hurts the environment.

The site sits on a high water table and is not stable. This is the same reason why an underpass cannot be built on Richmond St. to accommodate a rapid transit line.

Council Decisions

Council’s disregard for the guiding principles of the London Plan has resulted in chaotic and adhoc development approvals and have eroded confidence in decision making. It results in unnecessary Appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal and a cost to taxpayers. The gentrification of luxury rentals is pushing low income people out of the Core which is - by design and age as it was built before the age of the automobile – a walkable and access community. It pushes homeowners out of the Core because they cannot afford their property taxes. This should be ALL part of planning an inclusive City.

Mayor Ed Holder and Counillor John Fyfe-Millar

Mayor Ed Holder has accepted thousands of campaign dollars from ‘Soufan’ donors and Councillor John Fyfe-Millar has also received a large campaign donation from a 'Soufan’ donor. Both the Mayor and Ward 13 Councillor should recuse themselves from this file. Councillor Fyfe-Millar reported at Committee that he spoke to area residents who did not support this development, he confirmed that concentrations of student housing is detrimental to neighbourhoods and then proceeded to dismissed all of it at Committee except for enhanced landscaping. It is understandable to question the motives of both politicians on this file.

For all the above reasons, please accept the staff recommendation for refusal of this application on all points. This will not prevent York Development from submitting a new application.

Sincerely,

AnnaMaria Valastro and Jill Jacobson

North Talbot Residents

The City of London Planning Staff outright refused the Official Plan Amendments requested by York Development on the site of the Kent Brewery! Hurray ! That is one hurdle gone.

Please send in your comments asap as the public meeting on this proposal is Monday April 25, 2022

If you find responding to the development proposal overwhelming then please add your name to the letter below. Just send an email to: [email protected] with your name and state that you wish to add your name to the letter submitted by AnnaMaria Valastro (below).

Read what the Planning Department wrote. It is a resonating NO !.

Here is the report. https://pub-london.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=91709

Please send in your letter ASAP. Please circulate.

Bless and have a happy day.

****************************************************

Dear Council Members,

City Council delayed heritage designation of the Kent Brewery and the homes of its brewmasters, John and Joseph Hamilton, as recommended by the London Advisory Committee on Heritage, because they wanted to see what 'bonus offerings' York Development would bring to the table in exchange for demolishing a distinguished Heritage Site.

Is this development worth the demolition of the Kent Brewery and the homes of John and Joseph Hamilton?

With the demolition of the Kent Brewery, a larger area of London's industrial history will also be lost as the Kent Brewery is part of a cluster of repurposed heritage buildings along Richmond St and the CP Rail Tracks. This area was a 19tyh century industrial hub along Carling Creek and the railroad. Please see attached photo.

The number of active Ontario Land Tribunal Appeals alone should signal to Council that people are disapproving of Council decisions that ignore London's heritage.

The Kent Brewery and the homes of its brewmasters, John Hamilton and his son Joseph Hamilton, are a perfect example of 19th century craft brewery where the owners lived along side the brewery itself. The Kent Brewery is only one of two examples left in Canada, the other being Alexander Keiths in Halifax, and yet we have a Council that is willing to 'horse trade' this history for a bus shelter and giant Xs and Os on the street that mean nothing to nobody.

Bike racks and electric vehicle charging stations are just practical and planning ahead and all new development should have these additions. Planting drought tolerant plants instead of native plants on a small strip along a new building is not a climate action item.

Are these 'bonusable' offerings enough to justify the demolition of our heritage?

Kent Brewery and the Hamilton Family homes deserve to be protected because they are special and they are the last ones standing. All three buildings tell the story – not just one. And as an ensemble tell an even larger story of the village.

But history doesn't matter if it is up against a large tax base. That's the bottom line. And these buildings suffer from deep rooted aesthetics bias. These buildings are beautiful – inside and out - in good condition (Laura Dent research) and currently are homes to many people and the homes on St. George St are homes to families with children.

This Council could raise the bar and uphold the intend of the London Plan as Londoners requested when they were asked to 'help shape' London's direction for the next 20 years. Council could reject this proposal and ask that new development maintain the integrity of the buildings and design a new development that 'shows off' the history as the London Plan intended when it went through extensive public engagement.

Attached are before and after photos of heritage designated 93-95 Dufferin St. Council sacrificed Camden Terrace and the history of Talbot St. Banker's Row in exchange for high density towers. In return they designated 93-95 Dufferin St.

The fate of 93-95 Dufferin St. can longer be the standard for heritage horse trading. As you can see from the photos, 93-95 Dufferin St. has been butchered and there is little left of these once grand homes by architect Samuel L. Peters.

Is this acceptable to you? If not, ask for more. If you ask for more, will you get more.



Near Campus Neighbourhood Policy

This development is an over intensification of the land. This specific site was chosen for marketing purposes because it will be marketed as temporary student housing and the North Talbot Neighbourhood is already over-intensified with this sort of housing.

Near Campus Neighbourhood Policy recognizes saturation of student housing and aims to balance a diversity in housing so to invite a diversity of people. Therefore this development cannot to reviewed in isolation of the whole North Talbot neighbourhood.

The London Plan pages 263 - 265 and 273 – 275

This neighbourhood is losing housing diversity at an alarming rate primarily because intensification has focused exclusively on temporary housing. It is important to understand how these decisions contribute to the growing problem of exclusionary housing and unintentionally 'people zoning'. Recently, city staff recommended refusal of a Minor Variance in the same neighbourhood to increase density beyond the allowable zoning limit citing the neighbourhood had been over-intensified and offended provisions in the Near Campus Neighbourhood Policy. While this development likely argues that it is part of a transit corridor, ALL traffic will move through the neighbouthood because it has no direct access to a transit corridor, therefore the impacts on the neighbourhood are real.

The neighbourhood cannot be ignored because the neighbourhood will carry the brunt of what is being proposed. Local city traffic studies show that the North Talbot neighbourhood experiences greater through traffic than local traffic because of its proximity to Richmond Street and the CP rail tracks. Traffic from this new development can only move through the neighbourhood and therefore cannot be said to be on a main transit corridor for traffic flow.

Also, The Near Campus Neighbourhood Policies are dominate over all overlaying policies in the London Plan.

In the London Plan, under Place Type Polices, section Near Campus Neighbourhood:

It states in Section 965 pg. 262.

3) Do not allow for incremental changes in use, density, intensity, and lot size through zoning amendments, minor variances and consents to sever that cumulatively lead to undesirable changes in the character and amenity of streetscapes and neighbourhoods.

5) In pursuit of balanced neighbourhoods, recognize areas that have already absorbed a significant amount of residential intensification and residential intensity and direct proposals for additional intensification away from such areas.

13) Ensure intensification is located and designed to respect the residential amenity of nearby properties.

It states in Section 969 pg. 265

969_ For lands in the Neighbourhoods Place Type that are located within Near-Campus Neighbourhoods, the following forms of intensity and increased residential intensity will not be permitted:

Development within neighbourhoods that have already absorbed significant amounts of residential intensification and/or residential intensity and are experiencing cumulative impacts that undermine the vision and planning goals for Near-Campus Neighbourhoods.
This neighbourhood has already experienced negative cumulative impacts from exclusionary housing intensification and wishes to seek relief. For example:

For approximately 4-6 months, many of the rental units are empty because the tenants have moved back to their permanent residences. This has created dead zones of the neighbourhood – empty houses and streets that make permanent residents vulnerable to crime and reduces a sense of place and neighbourhood for those residents. The guidelines for Near Campus Neighbourhoods are intended to balance diversity in housing to invite a diversity of people. This neighbourhood is no longer balanced. It is now a dead zone which is a symptom of over-intensification of one housing type.


Intensification has resulted in the denuding of trees and backyards to accommodate increased parking. The vast majority of new rentals are rooms within units but unlike a 'rooming house' whose occupants may not have cars, students – the primary market for rentals in this neighbourhood - arrive with their own personal vehicle as they travel between residences. Despite limits on parking space, investors tend to remove Landscape Open Space to accommodate tenant parking.


This new development is reducing- not enhancing – Landscape Open Space


This neighbourhood needs housing for families to balance the intended policy direction of the Near Campus Neighbourhood.

The development will remove several existing family affordable units and they will not be replaced because the formula used by the City to calculate affordability is out of touch with the reality of people that cannot find housing and the percentage of units being offered applies only on the bonus areas being requested. The Unity Project has Appealed the City's approach on affordable unit swapping for bonusing. They appealed so a hard look can be had on whether the city 'swapping' isn't driven by a dense tax base rather than affordable housing that actually helps people in need.

And the converted single family homes in North Talbot are desirable by students that like to entertain because they often have an entire house with a lot of parking and an absentee landlord. Therefore this new highrise will NOT free up older family homes that are now student housing. Single family homes are preferred by students.

Trees

Boulevard Trees cannot grow into shade trees because they do not have the soil or moisture to support them and are susceptible to road pollution. Unless the boulevard is setback enough to allow for full root expansion, shade trees cannot be realized and will not contribute to the overall tree canopy goals of the Urban Forest Strategy in the London Plan.

The City of London is struggling to meet its obligation under the Urban Forest Strategy and Climate Emergency Action Plan because of competing policies within the London Plan specific to intensification and planning designs. Intensification is removing private land for tree planting through reduced setbacks and open space requirements and the City Forestry Staff has concluded that there is no more public land for tree planting. These spaces have been exhausted and competing policies prevent or reduce private land to meet its tree canopy goals. Therefore, it is becomes increasing import that interior blocks contribute to the city's canopy goals.

9th Meeting of the Trees and Forests Advisory Committee

November 24, 2021, 12:15 PM

On-going Loss of Street Tree Planting Spaces The city is running out of vacant sites for trees on existing streets. Street trees are very important as they define community character. In addition to all their environmental benefits, street trees provide shade to pedestrians and can extend the lifespan of the asphalt roads. The city has planted most of the planting spaces identified through a recently completed tree inventory. In the process of creating annual planting plans, the city notifies residents via letter of the upcoming tree planting. Residents have the option to "opt out" and reject a street tree outside their home, even if one was there before. Over the past few years, this trend is increasing to as much as a 20% of the total tree planting numbers annually and has a cumulative impact. Private Land Approximately, 90% of tree planting opportunities are located on private lands. Encouraging tree planting on private land has the greatest impact to affect tree canopy cover goals.
Terraces

Large open terraces do not contribute to the Landscaped Open Space By-law but will increase noise in a neighbourhood that already has a noise issue. This building is brazen and is designed with no consideration of the neighbourhood – at all. It completely ignores the fact that the neighbourhood already has an abundance of highrises, its traffic patterns will move through the small residential streets to get to a main streets, and ignores the impacts of a 'late night' commercial strip encroaching on a residential neighbourhood.

York Development already challenged the site zoning for this parcel of land in the London Plan which was zoned Neighbourhood Type Place in an effort to protect 'neighbourhoods'. The City then settled in 2018 and it reverted back to the 1989 Official Plan. York Development is back again, pushing harder still with zoning amendments that break all rules. Either the London Plan matters or it is irrelevant.

Sincerely,

AnnaMaria Valastro

North Talbot Community - resident

York Development wants to demolish the Kent Brewery and build this ! We have until April 13, 2022 to send our comments.

https://london.ca/business-development/planning-development-applications/planning-applications/84-86-st-george-street

Please address your letters to: Dear Members of Council -
File # OZ-9127 and send to:

Your Councillor:

Members of Council: [email protected]

Planning Staff: [email protected]

Submit for the Public Participation Meeting: [email protected]

You can copy to all of the above in one email.
Thank You !

84-86 St George Street and 175-197 Ann Street | City of London London’s Labatt Memorial Park is the world's longest continuously operating baseball grounds, a 144-year streak recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Please Circulate Widely with Family and Friends

We have until April 13, 2022 to send in comments. We hope you will write your own personal letter and have your friends and family sign their names too.

The Community of North Talbot is fighting a proposal by York Development to tear down three heritage buildings on Ann Street to build a highrise.

The three heritage buildings are Kent Brewery located at 197 Ann Street and the homes of the owners, John Hamilton ( 183 Ann St.) and his son Joseph Hamilton (179 Ann St.) Below is a brief history and photos are attached.

As you can see from the application, York Development intends to demolition the historical site. https://london.ca/business-development/planning-development-applications/planning-applications/84-86-st-george-street

The London Advisory Committee on Heritage submitted their report recommending heritage designation for the Kent Brewery and the homes of John and Joseph Hamilton. At that time York development asked that Council not designate the site until it had a chance to revisit and respond to the LACH recommendations. Two years later York Development simply resubmitted the original application. York Development delayed an independent heritage evaluation, and then resubmitted the original proposal again. And that's why the time frame to respond to this application is so short now.

It is not fair so we need your letters in ASAP. This is a city wide issue and if we are serious about heritage preservation across the city, we need voices to speak up from across the city.

In granting York Development's request, Council effectively politized the heritage designation process because the Kent Brewery suffers from aesthetic bias. These buildings are not architecturally grand but are steeped in grand history and it is the history that matters.

Please address your letters to: Dear Members of Council -
File # OZ-9127 and send to:

Your Councillor:

Members of Council: [email protected]

Planning Staff: [email protected]

Submit for the Public Participation Meeting: [email protected]

You can copy to all of the above in one email.

Thank You !

london.ca

This historical site is unique because it is one of two last remaining examples of a 19th century brewery where the brewmasters and owners lived next to their brewery. The York Development intends to demolish all of them.

These are before and after photos of 93-95 Dufferin Street. These historical buildings were saved when Camden Terrace on Talbot Street was demolished. Council ordered that they be incorporated into the new design. They have been butchered by Old Oak Properties and this cannot be the fate of the Kent Brewery.

A Winter Roller Coaster

Illustration from the January 17th, 1888 London Daily Free Press showing the London Toboggan slide. The 800 member London Toboggan Club opened the dual chute slide on the eastern embankment of the Thames river just west of Talbot street near Mill street. It angled in a northwesterly direction behind the Carling Brewery and finished on the flats near the Oxford Street bridge. The slide was 82 feet (25m) high and 780 feet (238m) long with a total run of 1625 feet (425m). The contractor used almost 60,00 feet of lumber in the construction of this slide. It took 21 seconds for the descent but the riders faced a long walk back up the path dragging their toboggans.

January 17, 1888

Image and information from the London and Middlesex Historian: Volume 22, Autumn 2013. 'Our Big Toboggan Slides' by Catherine B. McEwen.

If you would like to read the entire article it can be found on the London and Middlesex Historical Society website (londonhistory.org) or click on this link:https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/9a2f52_34fc3d1f163449e3b88afa4ac972b58d.pdf

Please click on image to enlarge for full description.

Physical and Design Values

Please click on images to enlarge for full details and descriptions.

You can search Fire Insurance Maps online at Western Archives here: https://www.lib.uwo.ca/madgic/fips.html

Fire Insurance Plan Holdings Western University, in vibrant London, Ontario, delivers an academic and student experience second to none.

The first record of Fire Insurance Maps in London, Ontario dates from 1881. Fire Insurance Plans (FIPs) are urban city maps initially created for insurance companies to provide them with information about building composition and to assess fire risk and assist in assigning insurance rates. These plans provide details on building construction and usage and help give a static impression of streetscapes, neighbourhoods and business/commercial regions.

This segment shows the Kent Brewery. This section of North Talbot was industrial because it next to Carling Creek and the CPR Railway Line.

Comfort Place was demolished to make way for new Veterans’ housing after World War II. But Comfort Place was likely chosen as the new location for this development because it was seen as a ‘shanty’ village. That bias continues today as low income neighbourhoods are often purchased cheaply by developers and then gentrified making once affordable housing unaffordable and pushing out low income residents.

As the Forks of the Thames became too crowded and too polluted from industry, many of London’s young entrepreneurs built new homes along Talbot and Ridout streets, Kent and Albert streets. Some of these mansions are still standing. Comfort Place was a remnant of when North Talbot was mostly farmland owned by John Kent. Comfort Place was a small alcove of wooden cottages located where the Mary Campbell Co-op now stands on Talbot St.. How Comfort Place was demolished remains a heart breaking story and relevant to this day.

Detail from 1855 Samuel Peters Jr Map showing the CARLING houses next to their original brewery on Waterloo Street. Horn Lake was an artificial lake created by damming Carling Creek to create a swimming 'hole' for the soldiers at the barracks at present day Piccadilly Park and Kenneth Street. Carling Creek is still open along the railway tracks at Colborne and Pall Mall Sts.

In the 1800's, brew masters lived next to their breweries. This is true of the Labatt Family, the Carling Family and the Hamilton Family who owned the Kent Brewery. The Kent Brewery is the only remaining example of this in Ontario and only one of two in Canada. The other is Alexander Keith's Brewery in Halifax.

Photo: T. H. Carling (residence) is first listed at 677 Talbot Street in the 1893 City Directory and the last listing for him at this address is in 1922.

Photo: Carling Brewery (background) from Blackfriars Bridge circa: 1875 the year the bridge opened.

Birds Eye View of the area - 1872. Sarnia St was renamed Richmond St and if you can locate Carling Creek you will see Kent Brewery and then Carling Brewery located at the Thames River.

Through Freedom of Information we were able to retrieve some early records of the Kent Brewery and the North Talbot neighbourhood. Richmond Street in 1851 was named Sarnia Street.

The Kent Brewery and the homes of the Hamilton Family would be located in blocks 1 - 5 on Ann Street.

The house of John Hamilton

This is the home of Joseph Hamilton. A cottage house next to the Kent Brewery. It is a cottage house with high ceilings and yellow brick distinctive of local quarries in the London area from the 1800s.

York Development has purchased these properties and could demolish them to raise a luxury student tower. London City Council (London Ontario) has refused a request by London's Advisory Committee on Heritage to designate these properties and instead voted to review a heritage designation at the same time as reviewing the York application, pitting heritage against a new development.

This means heritage designation will not be considered on its own merits as prescribed in Ontario's Heritage Act – which has built-in provisions to protect heritage buildings from political interference.