A plan to protect First Shaughnessy and pre-1940s houses has been approved by the City of Vancouver.

The Heritage Action Plan includes a moratorium on demolition for one year as well as amendments requiring minimum reuse and recycling of 75 per cent of demolition waste from pre-1940s houses, and of 90 per cent from character homes. (More details here)

“The purpose of the heritage control period is to allow time for the city to consider what steps council can take to better conserve heritage property in the First Shaughnessy District, including designating it as Heritage Conservation Area,” the report to council reads.

Richard Keate, chairman of Vancouver Heritage Commission and a Shaughnessy resident, said the city needs to deal with what he called “all this constant threat of demotion by neglect.

“We currently have a 1920s residence at 1288 The Crescent that has sat unattended and uninhabited for over 15 years with a development permit posted subject to sale of the property,” he told council members.

“It is coming down this week. The first heritage house on The Crescent to do so.”

He said in one case, a 1912 house had been replaced with a new 18,000-square-foot house.

“Ever since Southlands and UBC introduced FSR caps of 9,000 square feet, Shaughnessy has become the last bastion in the city of large lots to build much larger mansions,” he said.

There are 595 properties in First Shaughnessy, of which 329 were constructed before 1940. Eighty of the properties are listed on the Vancouver Heritage Register. Of these, only 11 are protected from demolition, according to the city.

But these rules to preserve heritage homes in Shaughnessy may be wrong for Dunbar, the chairwoman of the Dunbar Vision Implementation Committee told council Wednesday.

Jane Ingram-Baker said while the city may be in a panic to do something immediately to save pre-1940s character homes in Shaughnessy, applying the same kind of solution in Dunbar wouldn’t be an appropriate response to what’s happening in her neighbourhood.

“In Shaughnessy, you have these massive lots. You can talk about bonusing, you can talk about making them into different units. These are 10,000-square-foot houses with huge setbacks,” she said in an interview outside council chambers.

“But you look in contrast to a 33-foot-lot in Dunbar where you have an 1,800-square-foot house and you’re talking about putting over double the square footage into a density bonus — building it right out.”

Ingram-Baker said what’s happening in Dunbar is that many houses are being sold by people who are then moving into smaller accommodations. Residents are leaving furniture and appliances behind thinking they’ll be recycled or reused. Instead, she said, houses are simply being demolished without reusing any of the mouldings, hardwood floor or other building features and without selling or even giving away appliances or furniture.

“Houses from the 1980s are coming down,” she said. “If there was any incentive, the owner would let people come in and take the kitchen out.”

That’s not happening, she said, because of concerns about liability.

“They’re offshore owners (and) no one can get permission,” she said.

Previous owners of houses, she said, are “so sick” about what’s happening, they’re organizing parties to save furnishings and building features.

kevingriffin@vancouversun.com