This article originally appeared on HaltonHillsToday Feb. 10.
The Hide House land owner is appealing the Town of Halton Hills’ decision to bestow a heritage designation upon the well-known property.
The matter is now before the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), with a case management conference (CMC) held last month.
A memorandum of oral decision from the CMC says both the property owner (2088217 Ontario Inc.) and the Town indicated that "they have not reached a point in their discussions to have discussed settlement, or to warrant tribunal-led mediation, but may be open to it in the future.”
From there, a one-day OLT motion hearing was scheduled for July 10 at 10 a.m.
At issue is the Town's decision last summer to put a heritage designation on the Eastern Avenue property that's been made famous by the Hide House.
The red-brick warehouse was built in 1899 and was originally used by the Beardmore Tannery. It has been home to the Hide House, a leather clothing and furniture store, since 1980. The Hide House announced in December that it will be closing after liquidating its remaining inventory.
The building has been on the Town’s heritage register since 2016 and the Town announced its intention to seek a heritage designation in May 2024. It issued a notice of intention to designate (NOID) to the owner, 2088217 Ontario Inc., on June 6.
The property owner, through its lawyer, responded with a notice of objection on July 5.
In August, town council passed a bylaw to designate it as a heritage property. A staff report on the topic cited it as an example of a “19th-century Victorian industrial warehouse, the only one of its kind in Halton Hills.”
The property owner says the Town is required to provide “a statement explaining the cultural heritage value or interest of the property and a description of the heritage attributes of the property” in its NOID.
The Town stated in its NOID that the property:
- Has historical and associative value due to its direct association with the development of the tanning industry in Acton
- The Hide House was built as a warehouse for the Beardmore & Co. Tannery, at the time the largest Tannery in the British Empire and a major employer in the Town of Acton with almost 6,500 people working for the company at its peak
- The property is directly associated with the Beardmore family and with its owner George Beardmore, who established the Beardmore & Co. Tannery.
However, the property owner argues that the Town failed to provide the second requirement – the description of the heritage attributes of the property.
The Town reissued the NOID to the property owner on July 11 noting that “since its adaptive re-use in the 1980s, the site has operated as a tourist destination and commercial outlet” and that the brickwork was completed by local bricklayer and builder Thomas Maxted, whose work is featured on other significant buildings in town.
It also highlighted architectural features, including “red brick cladding and detailing, brick construction in varied patterns throughout, heavy timber frame construction and wooden trusses on the interior.”
In a letter from its lawyer, the property owner contends that the re-issuing of the NOID does not comply with the Ontario Heritage Act, and alleges the Town didn't balance the heritage designation with other provincial and municipal planning policy objectives. 2088217 Ontario Inc. also says it believes the property’s location in an urban area, next to the Acton GO station, and as part of the Downtown Redevelopment Sub-Area in the Town’s Official Plan all support mixed-use redevelopment.
In addition, the property owner took issue with the staff report indicating the building displays a “high degree of craftsmanship,” saying it “challenges that assertion.”
The Town told HaltonHillsToday it's unable to comment further on the matter as it's before the OLT.