Four more Oakville houses recommended for heritage designation as listed properties near the register deadline
Heritage Oakville is asked on November 10 to back notices of intention to designate Fegan House, Evergreen Lodge, Elm Place and Rockdale Farmhouse. Staff say 84 listed properties are designated and about 15 are in progress before the January 1, 2027 cutoff.
Where this is
The details
The four houses
Town heritage staff are recommending that Council issue notices of intention to designate four more properties under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act. Their report, dated November 3, goes to the Heritage Oakville Advisory Committee on Tuesday, November 10 at 9:30 a.m. in the Council Chamber. Staff say each property meets at least two of the nine provincial criteria in Ontario Regulation 9/06. The four are in Wards 2, 3 and 5.
- A 1920s Period Revival estate house with Tudor-style elements, south of Lakeshore Road East. Staff say it is the last remaining of the older estate houses on historic Lot 3, and note its associations with the Cox family.
- A brick Gothic Revival farmhouse with Italianate influences, built about 1871 to 1877 and associated with the Speers family.
- A mid-1800s Gothic Revival farmhouse with early 1900s Arts and Crafts features, associated with the McCraney and Heward families and with orchard farming along the lakeshore.
- A stucco Ontario vernacular Italianate farmhouse from the 1860s or 1870s, east of Sixth Line. The surrounding Kent Gardens neighbourhood is named after the family that farmed the land for more than 70 years.
What happens next
The committee advises; Council decides. The report says separate staff reports recommending designation will go to Planning and Development Council at a future meeting. If Council issues a notice, it is sent to the owner and the public, and the report describes a 30-day objection period. The draft notices attached to the report are dated December 2026 and set an objection deadline in January 2027, with the days left blank; no Council date for these four properties has been posted.
The register deadline
A second staff report on the same agenda, also dated November 3, updates the Town's Heritage Designation Project. Provincial changes under Bill 23 and Bill 200 require properties listed on a municipal heritage register before January 1, 2023 to be designated by January 1, 2027 or removed. When the project began in 2023, Oakville had 294 listed properties, and staff screening found about 100 with potential to meet the designation criteria. To date 84 have been designated and about 15 are in progress, with about nine expected to be completed by the end of 2026 and about six more in 2027, the report says.
Listed properties that remain at the deadline will be removed from the register starting January 1, 2027, and may be considered for re-listing beginning January 1, 2032. Staff say they will keep them in an internal inventory for possible future designation, commemoration or salvage, and that municipalities can still designate unlisted properties, subject to limits in the Ontario Heritage Act and the Planning Act. The report does not say how many properties will be removed. A separate report on the register goes to Planning and Development Council on December 7.
The report also says the additional designations may increase demand for heritage permits and staff time, and for the Heritage Grant Program, which is funded by the Heritage Reserve Fund and, staff say, typically oversubscribed.
Sources
Town of Oakville
Appendix F - Draft Notices of Intention to DesignateTown of Oakville
Meetings calendar (eSCRIBE)