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Kingston metropolis council votes in opposition to heritage designation as program is paused to evaluate impression on insurance coverage
Revealed Feb 05, 2025 • Final up to date 23 hours in the past • 2 minute learn
House owner Tracey Burley cries into her hand in aid after Kingston metropolis council voted down a heritage designation on her Florida Highway property, one thing she stated would result in her shedding her insurance coverage and, in the end, her house in Kingston, Ont. on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. Picture by Elliot Ferguson /The Whig-Customary
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A Florida Highway property proprietor broke down in tears after metropolis council voted in opposition to designating her house as a heritage property.
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Metropolis council unanimously voted in opposition to the designation after the proprietor, Tracey Burley, stated her home-owner’s insurance coverage would change into unaffordable if her house was declared a heritage property.
“If this designation goes through, we are going to lose our insurance,” Burley stated. “Without insurance, no bank is going to hold our mortgage.”
Burley stated she initially was in favour of the heritage designation, as she and her husband had been pleased with the work they’d accomplished renovating the farmhouse since they purchased the 53-hectare property in 2006.
Kingston metropolis council voted down heritage designation for a Florida Highway property in Kingston, Ont. on Tuesday, February. 4, 2025. Picture by Elliot Ferguson /The Whig-Customary
Burley stated it was solely after listening to about potential problems with insurance coverage that she contacted her dealer and was informed if they’ll get insurance coverage after their property was designated it could possible value 3 times as a lot as their present coverage, which is to come back up for renewal in October.
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“We cannot afford an increase of our house insurance,” she stated. “I’ve contacted the largest insurance broker in Ontario that deals with farm insurance and he cannot find any company that will cover us.”
Within the meantime, she informed council that she and her husband had already began to downsize their livestock herds.
“That was heartbreaking,” Kingscourt-Rideau Dist. Coun. Brandon Tozzo stated.
“The fear that you’re gonna lose your property and haven’t found insurance. I can just imagine putting myself in that place if that happened to me and my family. That is terrifying.”
“Heritage is something that we should celebrate in Kingston, and I think the narrative now is that it’s something people are scared of.”
“A heritage designation is now being turned into almost a homeless designation for some people,” added Pittsburgh Dist. Coun. Ryan Boehme.
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Heritage designations are, in some circumstances, including to the prices of housing, he stated.
“It’s more than just words on paper. We are playing with some people’s entire financial wealth that they have put into their home.”
The vote was the newest in a string of rejections of heritage designations as town pauses its heritage property designations with a view to get extra details about the method’s impression on insurance coverage.
The Florida Highway property, and one other home on Wellington Highway, had been the final properties that entered the heritage designation course of earlier than town paused this system.
Previously three months, metropolis council has begun heeding objections to heritage designations after issues had been raised about insurance coverage.
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