Oakville Moves Forward With Heritage Plans for Glen Abbey

Published August 23, 2017 at 12:52 pm

The Town of Oakville is moving forward with plans to designate the Glen Abbey property – and golf course – as a significant cultural heritage landscape under the Ontario Heritage Act.

The Town of Oakville is moving forward with plans to designate the Glen Abbey property – and golf course – as a significant cultural heritage landscape under the Ontario Heritage Act.

“Town staff, heritage experts and members of the community put forth compelling evidence of the significant cultural heritage value and attributes of the Glen Abbey property,” said Mayor Rob Burton, referencing delegations made at an Aug. 21 meeting.

That’s when council unanimously voted in support of heritage designation to protect the golf course from potential development by owner ClubLunk. 

“The town will now work closely with ClubLink to develop a conservation plan for the site that will help support the continued use of the golf course, including the 2018 Canadian Open.”

The recommendation to designate was based on the cultural heritage value of the property, which has been assessed by the town through its cultural heritage landscapes strategy.

This marks the first of many steps the town must take before finalizing the designation.

Council voted last May to recognize Glen Abbey as one of four significant cultural heritage landscape properties. The other three properties are: Bowbeer Farmstead at Burnhamthorpe Rd. E., Hilton Farm at North Service Rd. W., and Biggar Farm at Sixth Line.

As part of that vote, council asked town staff to proceed to implement measures to conserve the heritage value of the property. The recommended designation responds to that council direction.

On August 15, 2017, the town’s Heritage Oakville advisory committee recommended that the town proceed with a Notice of Intention to Designate the Glen Abbey property.

Town Commissioner of Community Development Jane Clohecy noted that the Notice of Intention to Designate the Glen Abbey property as the town’s first cultural heritage landscape was not a recent effort, but rather the result of work that began in 2009 when the town’s Livable Oakville Official Plan identified the need for the town to develop appropriate policies to conserve the town’s cultural heritage landscapes.

“Council approved the town’s Cultural Heritage landscape strategy in January 2014 and this strategy has been implemented in three phases to lead us to today,” Clohecy said.

“Glen Abbey is the first property identified but work is continuing on three other high priority sites that were recognized by council earlier this year.”

Cultural heritage landscapes were first introduced in Ontario by the Provincial Policy Statement of 1997, and the recent 2017 update to the provincial Growth Plan again highlighted the need to conserve cultural heritage landscapes.

In addition to protection measures under the Ontario Heritage Act, Section 3 of the Planning Act allows municipalities to incorporate more detailed cultural heritage landscape conservation objectives and policies reflecting local heritage places, landscapes and districts into Official Plans, land use planning documents, and related development approval procedures or decisions.

This proposed designation is separate from the consideration of the applications filed by ClubLink to allow the redevelopment of the property for residential and commercial uses, which will be considered at the town’s planning and development council on Sept. 26.

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