A proposal to build affordable seniors’ housing next to 152-year-old St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s Church in Esquimalt has been forwarded to a public hearing despite residents’ worries about potential alterations to the heritage-designated church.
Several residents have told Esquimalt councillors that the heritage designation means the church’s exterior cannot be altered — a position disputed by Esquimalt staff.
Mayor Barb Desjardins said council’s decision dealt only with the land-use application to permit housing and that any physical changes to the church would be subject to a future heritage-alteration permit application.
The proposed building would replace the existing parish hall and house a ministry centre on the ground floor with 24 units of affordable seniors housing in four floors above.
A retired senior naval officer said allowing a new building to be built adjacent to the church would be akin to desecrating a military cemetery. St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s, with its strong connections to the navy, is not just another church, “it is a memorial to the thousands who served and are buried at sea either through necessity or by choice,” retired vice-admiral Nigel Brodeur says in a letter to council.
“For them, there are no hallowed cemeteries, no sad long rows of crosses to commemorate their names and units,” he writes. “For them St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s with its scores of memorial tablets, its naval and military ensigns, and especially its naval windows is their solitary shrine.”
To replace the natural beauty of the backlighting sky and trees with a large building would subdue the window and deface the church, he says, something “just as despicable … as it would be to deface or obscure a Canadian Military cemetery.”
Although it wasn’t a public hearing, several residents showed up at the council meeting Monday when the project was discussed. They generally spoke in favour of the proposed seniors’ housing but were opposed to any alterations to the small wooden church.
The applications for rezoning and for changes to the official community plan are being made by the Anglican Diocese of sa国际传媒
Councillors agreed to forward the applications to a public hearing, but noted that any physical alterations to the church would be subject to a separate heritage-alteration permit application.
Most of the residents’ concerns centred on a proposal to link the 152-year-old church to a new building with a breezeway. That would require raising the existing stained-glass windows on the church’s west wall by two feet and installing doors.
Peter Daniel, asset manager for the Anglican Diocese of sa国际传媒, said the diocese became aware of residents’ heritage concerns only in the past week. It has been working with a professional heritage architect for four years.
He said the diocese and its team will work with residents as it develops its heritage-alteration permit after the land-use application is decided by council.
Desjardins said in an interview that without a heritage-alteration permit, the proposed breezeway “is conceptual at best” and “they cannot move the window.”
She was not surprised that so many turned out to weigh in on the proposal, even though it wasn’t a public hearing.
“This church is a heritage symbol and sense of pride to Esquimalt. If you think of heritage in Esquimalt, you think of St. Paul’s Church. It’s history and connection with the navy makes it that much stronger,” she said.
“So the desire to preserve that remains very strong in the community.”
About 17 years ago, the diocese leased a portion of the property to St. Paul’s Housing Society for 99 years for a two-phase development of seniors’ housing.
The first phase, 26 units known as the Hermitage, was built but the project went over budget. A development permit was issued for Phase 2 but it was never built. This current application replaces that original project, according to background material provided by CitySpaces Consulting.
“The challenge for us is a failed real-estate project from 18 years ago; an existing non-conforming church hall building; the dwindling parish membership, which is not unusual in faith organizations these days; [and] a heritage church which is used sparingly — it has no washrooms,” Daniel told council.
St. Paul’s Church was built in 1866 at the foot of Signal Hill, close to the gates of Dockyard. It was dismantled board by board in 1904 and relocated to its current location at 1379 Esquimalt Rd.
