Saw the following on the Roundhouse Museum Project Yahoo Group, concerning the CPR roundhouse in Victoria, BC (the most intact CPR roundhouse facility in Canada). It has heritage listing, but is deteriorating and is the subject of a group that wishes it kept as a museum.

Glenn Migneault wrote:
>
> The City of Victoria is taking Canadian Pacific Railway to court.
> The city is taking CPR to court to have the CPR do repairs to the
> Roundhouse Roof,under a heritage bylaw,that states (not in these
> exact words) that a owner of such property must maintain the building
> in good shape,and not leave it in disrepair and let it fall to the
> ground.
> Court date is set for September,2004

Glenn,

I wish them well. I believe that previous cases of this ilk have had the
courts rule in favour of the owner of the building. Had something to do
with the building in question being made a 'heritage site' without the
owner being a signatory to the process. If CPR signed on then yes they
must repair, if they were not included in the deal then the 'heritage
moniker' isn't worth the plaque its placed on. At least this is what I
have been told as happened in the past. The city lawyers don't care as
the money comes from taxes and the city can just up the mill rate if the
case goes on longer than anticipated and the legal costs go up.

kind regards
Dennis


ryarger@rypn.org

> Saw the following on the Roundhouse Museum
> Project Yahoo Group, concerning the CPR
> roundhouse in Victoria, BC (the most intact
> CPR roundhouse facility in Canada). It has
> heritage listing, but is deteriorating and
> is the subject of a group that wishes it
> kept as a museum.

> Glenn Migneault wrote:

> Glenn,

> I wish them well. I believe that previous
> cases of this ilk have had the
> courts rule in favour of the owner of the
> building. Had something to do
> with the building in question being made a
> 'heritage site' without the
> owner being a signatory to the process. If
> CPR signed on then yes they
> must repair, if they were not included in
> the deal then the 'heritage
> moniker' isn't worth the plaque its placed
> on. At least this is what I
> have been told as happened in the past. The
> city lawyers don't care as
> the money comes from taxes and the city can
> just up the mill rate if the
> case goes on longer than anticipated and the
> legal costs go up.

> kind regards
> Dennis

That's good to hear. I visited the site a while back and created a website for it:

http://www.brian894x4.com/ENRussellroundhouse.html


My Abandoned & Historical Railroads Page

brianmccamish@msn.com