January 14th, the Heritage committee had several delegations to speak about the proposed development at the Old School House in Colchester. Kim Lewis and James Flynn the potential developers spoke about how they would preserve the Heritage look of the Old School house. A engineered picture of the school with some of the newer parts demolished was up for members to see what is proposed for the school house. I found the developers plan did not speak enough about their ideas for inside and the surrounding lands, a bit disappointing.
Residents from the Colchester Village spoke about the historical value of the school house as a cultural building and the plans the town proposed for future use.
Chair Laurie Brett brought a number her concerns forward with the lack of consultation the Heritage committee was given. Chair Brett stated the sale of surplus land bylaw does not differentiate from regular properties of land and heritage lands. The Clerk can declare surplus land in a few ways- announce in open council, newspaper. Chair Brett stated her concern was that perhaps council was not aware there are not sufficient protections in place around culturally significant lands. This can be fixed through building in safe guards in the bylaw the prevent this from happening in the future. Council Chair Brett made the following motion at the meeting which will go to council, ” Council promptly revise bylaw 855 related to the sale of surplus lands to provide special recognition protections and safeguards for publicly owned property of cultural heritage significance and that the said revise bylaws ensure robust stakeholder involvement by including enhanced public notice requirements with extended periods of public consultation that all public notices announcing the potential or actual sale of public lands containing cultural heritage assets identify the affected property by legal description as well as familiar and commonly used names with specific mention of their heritage designation status and that schedule A to 895 be updated, it is a register of town properties be updated to include a separate list of cultural assets of historical significance.
A motion was made by Richard Kokovai that the committee recommend to council that they defer the sale of the property until such a time the friends of Colchester School House and other individuals have an opportunity to develop a plan for the property.
A motion was also made to start the designation process on the School House building.
