LOCAL HERITAGE COUNCIL – MINUTES – 46th meeting held on October 7, 2024 at 5:44 p.m.

The chair asks those present if they have any comments or observations, or if they wish to be heard regarding the requests on the agenda.

DISTRIBUTION: To CLP members, resource persons, city council members, and the City Clerk.

Mario Desbiens, regarding lighting adapted to heritage sectors:

Mr. Desbiens recalls that he sent a letter to the local heritage council a few years ago. He then reads a document: "The context of the request is as follows: heritage sectors are subject to special treatment (subsidies) based on their specific architectural characteristics. But heritage is not limited to that; it is also defined by its plant, spatial, volumetric, acoustic, luminous, and kinetic characteristics. All these aspects should be taken into consideration in the planning and enhancement of heritage sectors.

Illustrative parenthesis: for years, we have been asking for transit and speed control measures for the Village d'Argentine sector and particularly for the small rue Wright; the services always approach the issue based on general standards, whereas this street and its sidewalk are not standard, just like the neighborhood itself. Rather than adapting the context to the standards, we should adapt the standards to the context. In a heritage street like rue Wright, where people originally traveled on foot or by horse, and where today people walk in the street and contemplate the environment, the dominance of automobiles has no place and harms the heritage atmosphere of the sector; this nuisance must therefore be mitigated, and we are counting on the municipality to do so. End of parenthesis.

Regarding the item on the agenda, namely lighting, we suggest that the spectral component of the lighting be taken into consideration when switching to LED bulbs, as the City of Montréal did for the Vieux-Montréal sector, and that the municipality's heritage residential neighborhoods be equipped with 1800 or 2200 K LEDs. In the document sent to you, a concrete comparative example was requested to better judge the difference between the different lighting colors. This is no longer necessary, because on the pont Wright, one in four streetlights is orange-light, the other three are white-light; the difference is obvious. I invite you to go and see for yourself, and you will come to the same conclusion as us: that lighting adapted to heritage residential sectors is needed to enhance and promote them, by maintaining one of their historical identity characteristics. With a little imagination, one can see future residents of a city lit with a sparkling powder-white light, entering a heritage residential sector at night, being surprised, dazzled, and transported to a distant era by the warmth emitted by its orange lighting. In summary, lighting adapted to heritage residential sectors (1800 to 2200K) is a must for highlighting the heritage of historical residential sectors. In closing, I would like to mention that the lighting bordering natural sectors should also be the subject of special attention, due to its negative impacts on wildlife."

In-camera session: Two new members are welcomed to the local heritage council and the Planning Advisory Committee: Patrick Lemieux and Erica Leblanc-Deschâtelets.

8-10, rue Leduc and 119, promenade du Portage

At the suggestion of the local heritage council, the developer must evaluate the possibility of highlighting the history of the Imprimerie Gauvin (Gauvin Printing) which was located at 8-10, rue Leduc. In addition, a condition for the approval of the request has been added so that the bricks of the building at 119, promenade du Portage are recycled in the project itself or on another site.

a) Secteurs de PIIA – 35-37, rue Kent

It is noted that the land at 35-37, rue Kent is located in a restructuring zone at the edge of a preservation zone. There is a desire for the different characteristics of these two zones to be explained to the members. The response is that during the development of the Programme particulier d'urbanisme (PPU) for the downtown area in 2009, landscape units were targeted, which allowed for the definition of objectives and implementation means within the PPU. Subsequently, a typomorphological study was carried out as part of the update of the bylaw on Plans d'implantation et d'intégration architecturale (PIIA), so that the objectives and implementation means would be translated into the PIIA bylaw. In some cases, the implementation means are intended to preserve the built environment, for example, due to the street atmosphere or heritage character. In other cases, the built environment is intended to be renovated, hence the intention to restructure it. The first inventory of the built heritage of the City of Gatineau was adopted in 2008, and it was clearly indicated that this first inventory was a draft of what could be delivered. This inventory will be updated in 2025. Some objectives of the restructuring zones still promote a certain sensitivity to the heritage aspect.