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'm sure he knew it was on the inventory, ME.
Playing "dumb" is part of the ruse.
The owner claims he didn't know it was on the inventory, that there were "no grants".
The city employee who approved the permit "forgot" to comply with the 60 day wait.
The demo itself was rushed and completed in under one day with no regard to planning/safety.
Nothing is adding up here, except a lot of suspicion.
Stephen brought up a great point. Why are some business owners given preferential treatment at City Hall while others pay taxes only to have the city ruthlessly force them out of business? Why were the businesses on the Norwich Block treated like vermin by the pointy heads at city hall while others are treated with kid gloves? We need an independent investigation of our municipal government by a provincial auditor. Kwame Kilpatrick found out the hard way that no public official is above the law and it's high time Eddie Francis learned that too.
Good ole' Windsor.
If none of you lazy complainers planned on making an effort (either personally or through the government) to make this shitty building better, or none of you have a keen history in glorious (cough) Windsor or perhaps a familial interest in the history of the Fire Department, then you should all shut the fuck up and be happy that this ugly, vandalized 'landmark' is going to be replaced by something that might possibly help improve the crap economy that is Windsor. Detroit is already going down the drain, and Windsor is next, so you might as well pack up and move if you're going to waste hours online and at 'vigils', when you could be working hard in an attempt to revitalize the Windsor that counts and that is important for future generations. I am a big fan of history, but the only thing that warranted preserving this landmark would be a Fire Truck museum or something, although I doubt anyone would ever have put the time and dedication into fostering such a project. Maybe you should have.
JB, at least half the people who have commented on this topic have strong resumes in local activism and community involvement. I'm not sure what yours is like, but I wouldn't call this group a bunch of "lazy complainers" after knowing how much so many have done to forward the cause the local history and awareness.
JB if you think this building is soo shitty you should check out the old canadian motor lamp factory across the street from hearns on seminole now that is a building that is a eyesore and needs to be knocked down.The seagraves building was in much better shape then that piece of crap
http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=104
(Canadian Motor Lamp Factory)
John, I apologize for the presumed assumption. Perhaps anger at other posters' use of unnecessary language provoked it, but I'm sure that you all do care about the community. All I am trying to say it, in today's world, although history is vitally important, we must remember that money is required to keep things operational, and money will only be put into things that have to potential to give it back, or at the very least, not waste it. Thus, if people wanted to preserve this building, and I do think that it had a legitimate reason (1st fire truck), then something should have been done about it earlier. It seems as though its demolition should be used as a wake up call to make progress on the historical buildings that still remain, as in you activists should get together and BUY these places and I'm sure the government would help you if you approached them with reasonable historically-oriented ideas. There is no need to be so upset over the loss of this building because clearly no one cared about it until it was gone. And finally, everything has a beginning and an end; we humans have the unfortunate power of choosing when that end is; sadly we lack the wisdom in exercising that power. Cheers
I was reading in the paper that Assco-ck was trying to sell or lease it for the past year.. Does anyone know how much he listed it for? Was he demanding above market rates and just carpet bagging? How much more was he asking for than he bought it for? Twice or three times the amount? It would help clarify this whole economic use issue. If he was trying to sell the building at cost (what he paid for it) or lease it at market rates, then I might give JBs economic use argument a little weight. But,if he intentionally let it get run down and was asking over and above market rates, then Assco-ck deserves to be reprimanded. From Mark's comments, it makes me believe that's what happened. And, why did the other two businesses in there go under? Was the rent too high and above market? Did they move to a cheaper building? Unless someone can show me data which proves otherwise, Assco-ck sounds like a rotten stinkin' carpet bagger
JB, understood, I agree with most of what you are saying but please take into consideration that is part of the reasoning behind the 60 day grace period - so an inventoried building's heritage status/value can be properly assessed. With possible heritage designation, building owners have access to grants and special incentives subsidized by ratepayers - you and me - to put toward fixing their properties up and making ownership of a heritage property more rewarding. And yes some of the rhetoric in this discussion is pretty heated but most of us have been on a slow boil or years, essentially starting with the loss of the Norwich block. The slow boil ramped up when 801/819 Ouellette was razed. Now this. So no one is in a terribly good mood right now.