The Spec has the story here, with regards to the Blanchard proposal to demolish four buildings facing Gore Park between Hughson and James. Notable paragraphs:
"The downtown councillor is introducing a motion at Tuesday’s planning committee meeting to save 18-22 King St. E, the two westerly buildings schedules to come down. However, his motion would allow the demolition of 24-28 King St. E.
Development firm Wilson and Blanchard applied for a demolition permit in December for the stretch of properties on the south side of Gore Park, between James and Hughson, on the same day the municipal heritage committee asked that the buildings be placed on their registry."
I suppose it is better than demolishing all four, but still bad news. There's arguments about alteration, but these are clearly very old buildings that can't be replaced and made up a nice street wall, apart from the building that Blanchard allowed to decay so that demolition was necessary.
Obvious issues include the fact that while the city is trying to promote that block by making it pedestrian only and having various events in Gore Park, soon the street wall will have terrible looking gaping holes making the city's efforts pointless and making the main downtown area look even worse than it already does. If Blanchard would immediately build something on the large area he controls besides these buildings, that would ameliorate the situation, but I have much skepticism about these plans and have deep concerns that this area will sit empty for years.
Personally, even though I'm usually not a big advocate of city spending, I would be fine with the city buying these buildings and fixing them up. Perhaps the city could keep the police budget to a reasonable increase and use the savings for the purchase. It would be a much smaller project than the Lister. Although then again, the city isn't much of a landlord.
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