The former Erin Public School building will not be included on the town’s municipal registry of listed properties after council denied a heritage committee resolution on Aug. 11.
The heritage committee was seeking council support for placing the 1924 building onto the list, which would allow council to be more involved with the development of the property.
“It is not a designation,” said councillor Jeff Duncan, a member of the heritage committee.
“When you list a property, it gives the municipality 60 days, so we have two months to negotiate with the owner … at that time, it could come back, if council wanted to, and you could designate the property.”
The registry includes many homes, barns and other pre-1930 buildings, but the school was not including on that list.
“We’re asking it be listed with the other properties that are in the Village of Erin that are pre-1930,” said Duncan.
An addition was built in 1967 and the school closed in 2000 with the completion of Centre 2000. In 2003, a heritage study was completed by heritage planning consultant Paul Dilse, who recommended the town establish an inventory of heritage properties and that historic schools be considered first for inclusion on the inventory.
From 2005 to 2007, public meetings were held for rezoning the property so that owner Gary Langen could develop an apartment complex. In May 2007 the rezoning was granted.
Langen’s plan was to incorporate the character of the old school into new apartments with an addition that would mirror the style.
“The town has no other major institutional architecture, culturally or building wise. We have no big post offices, no big libraries, no big old town halls, this is the only major piece of institutional architecture that we have and it served the community for 80 years. I think it is something that we need to list,” said Duncan.
Economic development coordinator Bob Cheetum told council if the property was added to the list, a potential purchase of the property may not go through.
“The timing is not good at this point,” he said.
But Cheetum was not worried about the architecture, stating the developers were open to discussion.
“From initial discussions with the developer, they’re not adverse to looking at what could be done,” he said.
Councillor Rob Smith agreed with Cheetum.
“What I’m afraid of is when you have a building that has been sitting for so long that you may have a person that owns that property right now just letting it go into further deterioration. There’s nothing that tells us that he has to build it or do anything with it and it’s going to sit there for another 10 or 12, 15 years until it eventually collapses on itself and we’re going to be right back at square one,” Smith said.
“It doesn’t date back to the 1800s or anything like that, but it speaks to a time when we segregated boys from girls.”
Councillor John Brennan, who was on council during the rezoning process in 2007, agreed the old school should not be added to the registry.
“When the list was first put together, as I understand, it was largely just to say we have some older structures in town and we should have some sort of record of them; (then) it became something else,” he said.
Brennan said by adding the property to the registry, the town wouldn’t gain much.
“I think that by doing this we’re jeopardizing potential development and we are not gaining anything we won’t already have anyhow,” he said.
Mayor Allan Alls agreed that it was a significant building, but he couldn’t support the resolution.
“It is a significant building, however I’ve been in it recently and I got to tell you it’s in sad, sad shape,” he said.
“We don’t want to jeopardize this deal. This is what this town wants.”
As of the Advertiser’s press deadline, there was no confirmation on whether the property had been purchased.
Councillor Rob Smith agreed with Cheetum.
“What I’m afraid of is when you have a building that has been sitting for so long that you may have a person that owns that property right now just letting it go into further deterioration. There’s nothing that tells us that he has to build it or do anything with it and it’s going to sit there for another 10 or 12, 15 years until it eventually collapses on itself and we’re going to be right back at square one,” Smith said.
“It doesn’t date back to the 1800s or anything like that, but it speaks to a time when we segregated boys from girls.”
Councillor John Brennan, who was on council during the rezoning process in 2007, agreed the old school should not be added to the registry.
“When the list was first put together, as I understand, it was largely just to say we have some older structures in town and we should have some sort of record of them; (then) it became something else,” he said.
Brennan said by adding the property to the registry, the town wouldn’t gain much.
