The North End Heritage Group will be holding a information meeting Thursday night at the YMCA on Gottingen Street

An information meeting will be held this week to explore the possibility of securing a heritage designation for a north end neighbourhood.

The North End Heritage Group says the area between West Street and the Halifax Common -- including Creighton, Cogswell and North Park -- is popular with developers.

Organizer Alan Parish wants to preserve the heritage properties that are left.

"Most of the heritage properties seem to be getting knocked down and destroyed," he said on NEWS 95.7's The Rick Howe Show. "The only way we can protect them is to have these protections of a heritage conservation district."

He said the restrictions of designations can vary.

For instance, when you see one of those oval plaques around Halifax that indicate that a property is a heritage building, Parish said that doesn't mean it can't be knocked down.

"What that means is if somebody buys the house or the building, they can still demolish it as a right if they wait three years," he explained. "In a heritage conservation district, you don't have the right to demolish at all, you have to get permission from city council or some body of city council to do it."

Getting that designation can be a long process. Parish said it took 9 years for council to approve a heritage conservation district for the south end's Schmidtville neighbourhood.

Before going to council to ask for the designation, he said they will need to get community support for the north end neighbourhood and show that the area is worth preserving.

"Then the planners have to do a history of each house in the district, which takes a lot of time," he said. "Then there's public meetings of the people in the area to decide what types of restrictions they want."

Parish is worried about what buildings could be lost during the years-long process, but said the group needs to start somewhere.

"There's no point in waiting, might as well start now and hold our breath."

The meeting will take place at the YMCA on Gottingen Street Thursday night at 7 p.m. and all are welcome to attend.