ERIN – The owner of a building at the centre of a heritage dispute recently heard by Ontario’s land tribunal has been hit with an order to prove whether the building is structurally sound.
Stanislaus Goveas, owner of 92 Trafalgar Road in downtown Hillsburgh, was issued an “unsafe order” by the Town of Erin on Aug. 14.
The orders are used by municipalities to force remediation on buildings deemed faulty or dangerous.
The action follows testimony given at an Ontario Land Tribunal hearing in March by structural engineer Samir Vyas, who deemed the building unsafe.
Testifying on behalf of Goveas, the engineer said the building has “alarming vibrations” and needed fixing or to be demolished.
Goveas also told the tribunal the building has “structural issues” and is “temporarily stabilized.”
But none of that was relevant to a heritage designation the town wanted on the property and that Goveas wanted stopped, the tribunal said.
The tribunal did not make any findings about the building’s structural integrity at the heritage hearing.
The town has not commented on the building’s safety.
Erin spokesperson Chris Vernon told the Advertiser the unsafe order requires Goveas to submit to the town an engineering report about the building’s structural condition.
“If the engineering report finds that the building is unsafe, the owner is required to identify in the report the remediation necessary to make the building safe,” Vernon said.
The report is due to the town next month.
Meanwhile, town development manager David Waters said unsafe areas of the building must be “immediately secured and fenced off.”
Waters did not specify what areas of the building are affected by the order, but said normal business there may not be affected. Consumers Cannabis, a main-level tenant there, remained open with regular hours on Aug. 20.
Goveas did not respond to repeated messages from the Advertiser requesting comment for this story.
Goveas had plans to demolish the building, along with another on the same lot to make room for modern offices, he previously told the Advertiser.
“I’ve owned it for 10 years now, so if things don’t work out, you just sell it and move on,” he said.
The tribunal ruled in the town’s favour in a decision earlier this month about the heritage designation.
The town spent $61,500 on a lawyer from Toronto-based law firm Loopstra Nixon and a heritage consultant from Hamilton-based Archaeological Research Associates to represent it at the hearing.
The building now joins 18 additional properties in Hillsburgh with provincial heritage protections.
