In the wake of the demolition of three historic houses on York Street this week, heritage advocates are calling for the municipality of Tantramar to enact new heritage protections, nearly seven years after the former town of Sackville repealed its heritage bylaw.
Meredith Fisher says Sackville’s “charming” streetscape is disappearing and may soon hit a “point of no return.”
Tantramar Heritage Trust president Logan Atkinson agrees, telling CHMA that he hopes council will bring in a new heritage bylaw within the next year. “We ought to do it really quite quickly or the nature of this place is going to be altered forever,” says Atkinson.
The York Street houses were demolished to make way for a seven-storey residential development by partners John Lafford and Mike Wilson. Last November, Lafford told CHMA that while the existing heritage buildings could not be saved, he hoped the new building would “create maybe a new sense of heritage in an area that right now looks pretty tired.”
Hear this story as reported on Tantramar Report:
Fisher says that when Sackville’s heritage bylaw was rescinded in 2018, the plan as she understood it was to re-introduce a new bylaw. “There wasn’t supposed to be very much of a gap,” recalls Fisher.
Atkinson says he hopes that council can address the heritage question before the next round of municipal elections in May 2026. ”Without some protection,” he says, “we’re going to see additional heritage quality buildings that are going to be gone.” He’s particularly concerned about buildings on Bridge Street, where fire already took out the former Henderson Block in 2020.
“As Joni Mitchell said decades ago, you know, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, right?” says Atkinson. “And so this is, you know, a point of no return.”
Atkinson says a new heritage bylaw needn’t be as restrictive as the last one on Sackville’s books, and that his organization has done the research on bylaws in Maritime communities that may work for Sackville and Dorchester.
“People get very, very nervous about heritage bylaws,” says Atkinson, with concerns like, “I can’t change my doorknob without approval, this kind of thing.”
“But there are regimes of heritage protection that are not as intrusive as people remember from the years when our heritage by-law was in place,” he says. “It needn’t be that difficult.”
Atkinson says there are places “where heritage bylaws, private homeowners, and commercial developments have co-existed quite comfortably. It can be done.”
After Fisher made a presentation to council calling for action on heritage last September, Councillor Josh Goguen announced he would be making a motion regarding heritage. But the following month Goguen told council he wasn’t yet ready to make that motion, and none has been made since. CHMA has reached out to Goguen for an update on his plans regarding built heritage in Tantramar.
John Lafford did not respond to a request for comment from CHMA this week, but said in November that he and partner Mike Wilson intended to match materials for the new development to a remaining heritage building on York, the brick NB Tel building, where Wilson’s AIL head offices now reside.
“So we are keeping heritage in mind,” said Lafford in November. “We are keeping the aesthetics of Sackville in mind.”
