Jennifer Smith

Just when it seemed that the impasse between the St. Paul's Church Council and the Save the Sanctuary group was going to be impossible to break, there is some hopeful news:

Church looks to start fresh

St. Paul’s United Church is turning a new page in its quest for redevelopment.

Last week the church council voted to terminate its partnership with a local developer and open up the tendering process to the public.

“One of the complaints was that we never went public with the tender,” said Don Mahony, co-chair of St. Paul’s building task force and a member of the church council.

He added that because of the division the proposed development has caused in the congregation, and the lack of progress in the project, the council recommended that the letter of intent between St. Paul’s and the developer be dissolved.

... If approved by St. Paul’s congregation on November 14, the church council expects the tender process to take three to four months.

“Our number one priority is and always has been the preservation of the sanctuary,” said Handford. “And that’s not to say that there’s not room for adjustment to the sanctuary, only that the integrity of the sanctuary is preserved.”

The same sentiment is echoed by Mahony. “Our intent is to keep as much of the sanctuary as we can. We’re leaving it wide open for developers and expect to get a lot of options back.”

There! Now was that so hard?

Seriously, I am immensely pleased to see that both sides are finally looking at alternatives.  It may have had something to do with the recent election of a group of councillors who had campaigned on preventing the church's demolition, but I suspect it was more a realization that the previous developer's proposal would simply never have been approved - regardless of who was on council.

I'm also glad to hear that the Save the Sanctuary group is taking a softer line. It sounds like they are open to the idea of partial heritage designation, which would allow the Church to create a more usable interior space while preserving key features of the exterior.

My concern at this point is that time may be running out. Several windows have been removed from the sanctuary, the roof is still a mess, and winter is upon us.

I still remember what happened to the old building where the Milton Bible Church now stands, at 200 Main Street East. My husband and I had a workshop on Mary Street at the time, and we watched as the back of that building stood half-demolished and open to the elements all winter long. By the time spring rolled around, the damage was done. The building was deemed structurally unsound and down it came.

To prevent this sort of 'demolition by neglect', Council recently passed an amendment to the Property Standards by-law that requires owners of designated Heritage properties to maintain them in such a way as to preserve their heritage attributes (this was done on the initiative of Councillor Paul Scherer - one of many reasons I was sorry to see him defeated in the election).

Of course, this sort of protection will only apply if St. Paul's is designated as a Heritage property.