St. John’s city council has rejected an effort to rescind its previous decision not to give a number of properties on Water Street heritage status.
The motion was brought forward by councilor Tom Davis during council’s regular meeting yesterday.
Councillor Davis wanted to have the vote held in two weeks’ time, but Deputy Mayor Ron Ellsworth made a motion to have the vote held right away.
That initially caused some confusion among councillors, who sought clarification on which motion they were voting on.
Greg Noseworthy, who supported having the buildings designated as heritage structures, was one of those who rejected the motion to rescind.
“I think it does create a dangerous precedent when we are rescinding these types of applications, because it creates an opportunity where councillors can wait for an opportunity for certain members to not be in the room, to get a vote to go a certain way.” says Noseworthy, and “that is a very dangerous precedent to set.”
Davis says he introduced the motion after many councilors had greater time to reflect on the impact of their decision.
He says one of the challenges as he sees it, is that “we turned ourselves inside out on Devon House which was just preservation of one archway, and then a couple of weeks later, we’re allowing a building to be torn down without a plan.”
Deputy Mayor Ron Ellsworth (St. John'[s City Council)
“I don’t know how well he knows me, but I take offence to that. This is not politics, I literally heard a councillor say they felt rushed.”
The motion was rejected 8-2.
