‘Helping Save New West Heritage’ Report Presented to the City

Heritage New West has a final report on the recent public engagement sessions convened to discuss preserving and valuing the social, environmental, and economic benefits of New Westminster’s built heritage amid municipal and provincial housing priorities. The report was presented to the City in September.

Read the report

Purpose of the initiative

To effectively address the concerns of local heritage enthusiasts and advocates around how the protection of our built heritage fits into changes to the provincial government’s housing policy, Heritage New West enlisted SB Communications & Public Affairs Ltd. to develop a public engagement plan and document feedback for the City of New Westminster to consider as it moves forward.

The Process

The first of two engagement sessions took place in late April 2024, focusing on generating questions for the City and Province to consider during their policy reviews. Approximately 30 individuals participated, producing a total of 30 questions directed as follows:

• 2 questions for the Province of British Columbia; 
• 3 questions for both the City of New Westminster and the Province; and 
• 25 questions for the City of New Westminster.

Three (3) additional questions for the City were submitted post-session. The group prioritized the questions through voting, with the top questions summarized as follows:

1. Can the City Council request exemptions from new zoning bylaws if New Westminster has already met its density goals? (12 votes)
2. What measures can the City take to protect the unique heritage value of our City, as protections like the Queen’s Park Heritage Conservation Area (QPHCA) may not suffice? (7 votes)
3. How will the City advocate for heritage preservation with the Province, specifically for the Queen’s Park Heritage Conservation Area? (6 votes)
4. In non-HCA areas, what mechanisms exist to protect the character of existing homes and their streetscapes? (6 votes)
5. What is the City’s position on creating more Heritage Conservation Areas, in neighbourhoods like Massey Heights and Sapperton? (5 votes)
6. How will infrastructure be developed to support increased density? (5 votes)

After reviewing the first session and the questions generated, Heritage New West decided to hold a second session in early June to gather more feedback. This session focused on the overall benefits of heritage to the City, in general terms that also considered environmental, social, and economic benefits in line with the City’s Strategic Priorities and its commitment to addressing the Environment and Climate Emergency.

In the second session, about 30 participants were divided into three groups to identify heritage benefits under the aforementioned subjects:

• Environmental and climate change – 27 benefits
• Social – 26 benefits
• Economic – 25 benefits. 

Findings

In assessing the results of both of these sessions, a number of things became very clear. The  most obvious was the overall passion and knowledge that the participants had with respect to all kinds of heritage in the City. Equally impressive was their commitment to take a positive, proactive approach to providing feedback to the City and a willingness to work with its  representatives on the review.

All of these attributes were very clearly shown in the types of questions generated in Engagement Session #1 and, in Engagement Session #2, the successful linkage of the benefits of heritage to the City’s Strategic Priorities: Community Belonging and Connecting, People-Centered Economy, Safe Movement of People, Asset Management and Infrastructure, and Environment and Climate Emergency.

Conclusion

The end result of this engagement initiative appeared to meet the goals set out in the  beginning, which were to:  

• engage residents interested in heritage regarding potential changes,
• gather input in a format that the City can effectively consider, and
• document feedback in a manner easily reviewed by the City.

It is hoped that the City of New Westminster will consider this information in its heritage review and further collaborate with this informed and dedicated group of concerned residents.

The report is now public.

Heritage New West welcomes your feedback on this issue. Please contact us at newwestheritage@gmail.com.