Cherry Hill Club strikes creative heritage designation deal

Not all tee shots end up in the middle of the fairway. Sometimes a golfer needs to find a creative way to get on the green and into the cup.

Fort Erie staff and representatives from Cherry Hill Club have tapped that creativity and found a novel approach to a heritage designation question that had the potential to hit a sand trap or get lodged deep in the rough somewhere.

Instead, they’ve managed to come to an agreement that protects the historically significant clubhouse while allowing the course to operate as normal with a rarely used piece of provincial legislation.

“Cherry Hill Club and ourselves have agreed that there is heritage value or interest in this building,” said Evan Sugden, associate heritage lead with the Biglieri Group.

Sugden and his team were brought in by the club to review a heritage designation report that had been prepared by earlier consultants for the Town.

Sugden said their job was to “navigate what would have been quite a complicated heritage designation process.”

And their solution, one developed by the club and the Town, is to use what is called a heritage conservation easement agreement. It’s similar to the part four heritage designation that municipalities typically use, but allows them flexibility to overcome legal hurdles and also ensure the right aspects of the golf club are being protected.

“Our goal was to make sure that what’s protected is focused on the clubhouse and specifically what you see from the street,” Sugden said, describing that part of the building as the historically significant portion.

Otherwise, the club could have been faced with having to get heritage committee approval whenever they wanted to change something on the course itself.

“What they didn’t want was that the clubhouse be designated so that every time they change the bunker, change a tee deck, they have to go back to the heritage committee for approval. That was unacceptable for them as a business,” Sugden said.

While the easement is temporary, Sugden said it will exist in perpetuity. The golf club is planning some additions to the rear of the clubhouse, and while it won’t impact the heritage aspects, Sugden said this new type of agreement will allow them to move forward with that work.

Once that work is finished, Sugden said the club can apply for a part four designation on the clubhouse, which would start the process of moving it from a temporary easement into full fledged heritage designation.

Council members seemed happy to come to a solution that everyone could get behind.

“This is, I think, a very refreshing way in which this whole issue has been dealt with. I think it addresses the concerns of a number of councillors in terms of how we get to a designation status on a piece of property of great significance,” said Mayor Wayne Redekop.

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