You know, it’s shit like this, and land owners like Ashok Sood (who FYI, owns Champion Products Corp) who don’t give a rat’s ass about Windsor or our history, who make this City and undesirable place to live. Assholes and incompetence is the reason there is a giant hole in the historic heart of Walker Road in old Walkerville.
The historic Seagrave Building on Walker Road (which was featured here and here), was built around 1905, and in this building the first motorized fire trucks in Canada were built.
The city fucked up once again. This building was listed on the Heritage Inventory, and as such it should by law be afforded a 60 day waiting period before a demolition permit is issued. Guess what? It wasn’t. Some moron at City Hall issued the permit without batting an eye.
The same thing happened in November 2006 with the Walker Farm Manager’s house.
Following the Walker Farm House fiasco, I raised a stink and I received this reply:
Please note that the Ontario Heritage Act has been amended so that
properties that are considered for heritage designation must give Council
60 days notice of the intention to designate. After intention is given,
Council must make a decision whether to designate the building or allow
demolition.
Here is the relevant portion of the Ontario Heritage Act – See Section
27(3) – for the 60 day delay part.
Restriction on demolition, etc. If property included in the register under subsection (1.2) has not been
designated under section 29, the owner of the property shall not demolish
or remove a building or structure on the property or permit the demolition
or removal of the building or structure unless the owner gives the council
of the municipality at least 60 days notice in writing of the owner’s
intention to demolish or remove the building or structure or to permit the
demolition or removal of the building or structure. 2006, c. 11, Sched. B,
s. 11 (2).*We have unfortunately issued a demolition permit without following this
procedure. In the future, please ensure that if a building is considered
for heritage designation, that (the heritage planner) be notified and, under no
circumstances, issue the permit unless Council approves the demolition.
…*
Good to see that the city can’t even follow it’s own policies.
I have honestly had it up to here with the City and their piss poor job of doing anything.
The Mayor of Monmouth summed it up better than I ever could in his excellent post here.
No advance warning at all. It was obviously done on the hush. There is one exception to this. Rick Gruber who is the area Building Inspector rushed out today to halt the demolition because even though there was a permit to raise the building, there was no permit to close Walker Road. In fact, the sidewalk is the only thing which separates the building from Walker Road. Witnesses said that a man riding a bike almost got clocked by falling bricks. Four thirty rolled around. Quittin time for city employees and Jones fired up the beast and started tearing the old girl down. Right in the middle of rush hour. One reason…They rented the rig from Amicone for a tight time window and the clock was ticking. Within two hours the building was really history. Ashok Sood who owns that property along with most of the 8 and 900 blocks of Walker Road stood on the opposite side of Walker to witness his planned demolition. He is planning to attract a “Big Box” operation on the East Side of Walker.
– Mayor of Monmouth
You know what? Fuck you, and fuck your big box. Enjoy your vacant lot, and rest assured that I will fight any attempt by you to redevelop your holdings for big box use.
Special thanks for the photo above to Chris Edwards, who went back after me and caught the demise on camera.
His series of photos can be found here: http://walkerville.com/seagraves/
This is unacceptable, and fucking pathetic. Whoever issued this permit in contravention of the Ontario Heritage Act should lose their fucking job.
I’ll keep everyone posted if I learn anything.
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I understand the fact that everyone is upset about this, it irks me a little bit as well my brother lives on windmere so I drive by it often, but lets face it that building was a piece of crap eyesore it sat empty for the longest time and if you look closly at the pitures you can see where the walls were scortched from fire,I understand desginating certian buildings as heriitage but this one did not deserve it. As for a "big box" store going there never will happen look at the area , its at the end of walker accross the street from the dirtyest beer store i the city,also acoss the street it a storage facility, this lot will probly sit vacant for a long time or just be another parking lot.
Andrew, thanks for the clarification, I assumed when I should not have. Either way, I do wish he was able to be fined, or held accountable for going ahead without concent.
It's doubtful I will receive a responce to my umm.....NICE letter to whats his face, but if I do, I will gladly share what he has to say, although nothing said will replace what was destroyed, and ultimately that is the real tragedy.
Ian,
So jobs of any type are o.k as long as there are jobs? Sorry but that logic just doesn't resonate and it shouldn't. If we took that stance we might as well shut Windsor down right now.
If people are setting fires and trespassing it is up to the landlord to secure their buildings from intrusion. It is Mr. Sood's fault that this has not been redeveloped.
I have already called 4 councillors and was told by Mr. Jones that this will be spoken about at Monday's Council meeting but Ihave yet to see it on the agenda. I have also emailed Mr. Sood and he can be sure that I will not use his Champion Paper Products at my office. My company's head office has been contacted and they stood by my decision not to use Champion Paper Products any longer. Also, whatever is built on that site I will be sure NOT to go there while it is owned by Mr. Sood or any of his subsidiaries. I will make darn sure he is hit in his pocket book for the remainder of his existence in Windsor.
If and when this comes on the Council agenda I will speak as a delegate. Will you?
Ross - no worries, but you're right on the money with the real tragedy.
SHAFTS - I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, that building was a beatuy. It was also a very important industrial heritage site.
As for the fire, it was ruled as arson, and it only happend last July. It was only an eyesore because the douchebag property owner allowed it to be.
No one deserves more blame for this than the owner. Yes the city fucked up, but the owner got what he what he wanted, and took advantage of the situation.
The simple fact is that the owner allowed the building to deteriorate and ultimatly be demolished on his watch. His actions speak volumes to me about his lack of respect for the Walkerville neighbourhood, the residents and the city in general.
THESHAFS, then with that logic of it being empty what difference does it make whether the building is empty or an empty vacant lot? At least with the buliding still there the hope of revitalization still exists.
DAVE-Ok lets say the building was still there what type of bussiness do you think could have went in there? given the area on walker not to many that I would guess would want to risk it, now dont get me wrong I love Windsor and all its heritage but iI don't see what all the fuss is about about this particular building and whyt now are people upset about it after it gets torn down I sure did not see anything about it on this site until now.
This is utterly disgraceful. The City of Windsor should be very ashamed. Someone should be fired for this!!!
With respect to responsibility I would have to say that Mr. Sood was just as culpable as the city employee that rubber-stamped his demo permit. If Mr. Sood was aware that this building was designated as a heritage building and if Mr. Sood was aware that any permit to do any work to this building must be reviewed by council he is guilty of knowingly bypassing the city's by-laws. He has demonstrated contempt for the process and everyone in this city. His actions speak volumes about his personal ethics and morals. They also speak volumes of the impotence of our city's administration and elected officials.
THESHAFS. Lofts could have been done as they were done at the old Metropole (California's bar now Tony's I believe), smaller retail businesses could have been done if the owner actually did a bit of work on the hbuilding instead of letting it deteriorate further. No case study was put forth and as far as I know the Walkerville BIA was not contacted to see if they could help. Contrast that with themany businesses on Wyandotte....
Also it is that both the owner and administration flouted the law and did what they usually do in Windsor; ignore the pocesses that have been put in place.
The other thing this city does is usually bring in teh Fire Marshall to say that a buildingis not up to code. What happens is that it is too expensive to bring it "up to code" and therefore it gets demolished. (See Patterson Collegiate and almost the Grier Building on Riverside Dr, not to mention St. Joseph's that used to house the CAS).
As it stands the city has very little heritage buildings left so if another goes down the loss is that much greater.
James - Just to clairify, the building was listed on the inventory, not designated. If it was designated, there wouldn't have been a permit issued.
SHAFTS - That building was a perfect candiate for lofts or artists studios. The fuss about the building? It was a great looking urban brick warehouse. Two stories tall, and built up close to the road. It had a commanding presence in the neighbourhood. Also it was the building where the first motorized fire trucks in Canada were built, to me that makes it a pretty significant building.
People are upset, because the demolition was ILLEGAL. If we don't follow laws and procedures then there is little hope for Windsor. This building has been featured on this site several times (as noted in the post above)
In case you missed those links, here they are again:
http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=103
http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=427