I challenge heritage hobbiest Ken Johnson’s comparison of restoration costs to new building costs. As reported, he put himself in the interesting position of pitting himself against an engineering evaluation of a building on Mount Douglas CrossRoad.
(Council is rather slow to produce meeting minutes, so I can only go on what is reported by the Saanich News of May 5.)
The big question is “What standard of safety, maintenance and efficiency will ‘restoration’ improve the old house to?” Items to check include electrical wiring safety, window glazing and condition of plumbing. Often those have been improved from heritage condition (but in a house that old may require further upgrade).
I challenge heritage hobbiests to live with a “chamber pot” under the bed, emptied in an “outhouse” toilet. It seems what they want is just the old style, an architectural approach criticized in the famous novel The Fountainhead.
It’s hypocritical of Saanich to force retention of old designs while insisting on many details for safety and energy efficiency in new construction.
We’ve seen the work needed on the old Craigflower schoolhouse, with groups struggling to pay for upkeep on a building that is not true heritage in that location (tents of animal skin are).
And now we see the stupidity of demolition and rebuilding of an old structure a property owner was forced to retain to the detriment of use of the property for elderly people needing care. Brookman’s Store had much work done on its rotting base, but for some reason was subsequently torn down – yet is being rebuilt to similar shape. I predicted rot would be found inside. The heritage that should be remembered there is the hard work and industriousness of the Brookman and Wong families. The Wongs came from a less free place and prospered, heritage hobbiest work against our tradition of freedom that helped the Wongs prosper.
I am not commenting on the geometry the property owners on Mount Douglas CrossRoad want, I do ask Sheila Colwill if the options offered by her heritage hobby club include purchase of the property out of their own pockets.
Of course Saanich council is big on using force to keep “heritage”, such as the EDPA bylaw’s requirement to try to preserve the result of early farming methods that tribal people may have abandoned. (As they did with the raising of dogs for blanket hair once sheep’s wool became available, with shift to different methods of farming in the Similkameen, and by importing corn to grow in Manitoba – they weren’t stupid for their life. But they did suffer from difficulty defending against force by warring tribes and some British settlers.)
I ask council members if they value “heritage” force over better policing to defend individuals against theft, rape and murder.
Keith Sketchley
Saanich