Windsor Municipal Heritage Register

Reading the Register Document

The Register identifies properties alphabetically by street name.

The first column indicates the status of the property, which is also reflected in the colour of the row.

Those properties with a "D" in the first column are individually designated under the Ontario Heritage Act. City Council has passed by-laws identifying their heritage features that are to be kept. Council has the power to prohibit demolition and unsympathetic alteration of those properties.

Those properties with a "R" in the first column are listed on the "Register" as called for under the Ontario Heritage Act. Owners of properties listed on the Register must make an application to the City if it is their intent to demolish the property. The City must then make a decision within 60 days as to whether to pursue designation to protect the property or to allow for demolition. There are no other heritage restrictions on these properties.

Those properties with an "H" are designated in Heritage Conservation Districts, also protected with City by-laws:

• "H 05" - Prado Place Heritage Conservation District
• "H 12" - Sandwich Heritage Conservation District

Background

The identification, listing, evaluation and protection of built heritage resources is an ongoing process. The first step towards heritage preservation is generally making a list of those properties in the community that are of cultural heritage value or interest. Volunteers were developing a list of important heritage buildings in the city before the Windsor Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee was established in 1975.

That Committee recommended heritage designations ("D"); City Council approved Windsor’s first designation by-law for Willistead in 1976; and other by-laws followed (now over 100). These designations were the only heritage protection available at the time.

In 1989, the Committee approved the list of important heritage buildings called the Windsor Heritage Properties Inventory. It was used as an in-house planning tool that identified buildings of interest. The Committee had some successes in persuading owners to reuse those buildings instead of demolishing them, but only the designated properties were protected.

The committee was renamed the Windsor Heritage Committee in the 1990s.

Windsor’s City Council first approved a Heritage Register in 2007, after changes to the Ontario Heritage Act in 2005 gave municipalities all over Ontario the ability to require Council approval for demolition of listed properties ("R"). Most properties on the former Inventory were listed on the Register by 2008.

City Council approved the Prado Place Heritage Conservation District in 2005. The Sandwich Heritage Conservation District was approved in 2009 and effective in 2012. Additional properties have been listed on the Register, and a few removed.

In 2015 the Planning, Heritage & Economic Development Standing Committee began reviewing heritage matters. Final decisions on property matters remain with the City Council.

For general information, call 311. For detailed inquiries, contact us at:

Planning and Building Services Department
Suite 210, 350 City Hall Square West
Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9A 6S1
Phone: 519-255-6543 ext. 6179
Fax: 519-255-6544
Email: planningdept@citywindsor.ca