Time’s up for two of West Vancouver’s architecturally significant heritage homes facing redevelopment.
District of West Vancouver council voted unanimously in January to put a 60-day halt on demolition permits for the 1962 Croll Residence at 3984 Bayridge Ave. and the 1957 Ellis House at 2707 Rosebery Ave.
The move was intended to give district staff time to meet with the property owners and see if they would consider saving the homes, perhaps, in exchange for allowing more density or subdivision of their lots. The district has negotiated with property owners to save a number of heritage homes through such heritage revitalization agreements.
But the 60-day period expired March 23 and neither owner was interested.
“Given they both had submitted building permits to construct new houses, they were not interested in pursuing any alternative development options in exchange for protecting either resource,” said district spokeswoman Donna Powers in an email.
The Croll Residence was uniquely designed to wrap around a bare cleft of granite. The Ellis House was built by locally based Lewis Construction Co., which was known for modest post-and-beam homes. Both homes are listed on West Vancouver’s Survey of Significant Architecture.
In February, council adopted a new policy to deny demolition permits until building permit applications had also been submitted to prevent homes from being demolished prematurely. And council has since struck a new heritage advisory committee to help keep watch of the 150 or so homes with heritage value in the district.
