Oakville adopted a new plan for the Old Oakville heritage district in March 2025

What Council decided

On March 17, 2025, Oakville's Planning and Development Council passed two by-laws for the Old Oakville Heritage Conservation District on a motion by Councillor Gittings. By-law 2025-063 adopted the Old Oakville Heritage Conservation District Plan and Guidelines, dated March 2025, under the Ontario Heritage Act. By-law 2025-054 amended the 1981 by-law that created the district so that it takes in three individually designated properties: 8 Navy Street, 110-114 King Street and a portion of 144 Front Street.

The district was designated in 1981 and is Oakville's first, and one of the earliest in Ontario. It runs south of Robinson Street to the lakefront, from Sixteen Mile Creek in the west to Allan Street in the east, and takes in early vernacular houses, nineteenth-century lakeside cottages, churches and two waterfront parks.

What changed

The properties added to the district are Town-owned. The Town says 8 Navy Street and 110-114 King Street form part of the Erchless Estate, home of the Oakville Museum, and the portion of 144 Front Street at Lakeside Park holds the Merrick Thomas House and the historic Post Office. They were already protected one by one under Part IV of the Act; they are now also governed by the district plan.

• Greater emphasis on conserving landscape and views, and improved protection for mature trees.
• A stronger focus on appropriate scale, massing and design for new buildings.
• More detail on suitable materials for additions to historic buildings.
• Guidelines for detached additional residential units.
• Examples of what the plan calls Good Neighbours, non-historic properties that fit the district well, offered as design models.
• More clarity and consistency about how the guidelines are applied when change is proposed.

How it got to Council

The Town says the review began in 2021 and had two parts. Council approved a District Study in February 2024, which reassessed the area's heritage value and produced an up-to-date inventory of its properties. The draft plan, dated December 2024, went to a statutory public meeting on February 3, 2025. Two speakers from the Oakville Lakeside Residents Association told Council that scale, height and massing are what most protect or damage the character of the area, and asked for firmer guidance that additions stay subordinate to the heritage building in size, scale and detailing. Council directed staff to consider the association's feedback on height, scale and massing before the plan returned. One delegate spoke when it came back for adoption on March 17, when the agenda also carried a staff memo of revisions and a revised by-law.

Where it stands now

The Town published its notice of adoption on March 18, 2025, opening a 30-day appeal period that ran to April 17, 2025. In a release on April 23, 2025, the Town said no appeals had been filed and the document was approved. On November 9, 2026, the Town's heritage districts page listed By-law 2025-063 and the 2025 Plan and Guidelines as the governing documents for the district, and a search of the Ontario Land Tribunal's case-status database found no case for the by-law. Owners in the district who plan exterior changes now apply for heritage permits measured against the 2025 plan.