City of Cambridge Heritage Masterplan receives “go ahead”

“For too many years, the grand heritage buildings of Waterloo Region have been sitting targets for bulldozer drivers and wrecking ball operators. For too long, the area’s proud past has been a disposable commodity. But fortunately that reckless attitude itself is becoming a relic of the past.”

 

Cambridge council approved a new heritage master plan for the city and then went on to endorse the designation of two heritage homes and a local landmark on September 15, 2008.

 

What this means is that Cambridge will, in the near future, do an inventory of its historic buildings. Then it can determine what in the entire community is most in need of preserving while planning how the city can grow and change yet conserve its past.

 

The new master plan’s roots go back to the city’s ‘Our Common Future’ initiative a decade ago and was the primary recommendation to come out of the ‘Legacy Cambridge’ initiative five years ago. With revisions to the Ontario Heritage Act in 2005 and Ontario’s Places to Grow Strategy, progress was made more quickly.

 

The heritage master plan is a collaborative effort involving city staff and representatives from the heritage, environment and business communities. That collaboration has resulted in a document that will help guide the future development of Cambridge.

 

Council has unanimously endorsed the plan and in doing so made Cambridge one of three Ontario cities to have a heritage master plan following closely behind Toronto and Niagara Falls.

 

Keep on this track, Cambridge, Waterloo and Kitchener. It’s leading the region in the right direction.

 

Sources: Cambridge Times, The Record