By Claude & Parth on 2026-06-25, City: Richmond Hill, View Transcript
Richmond Hill council's June 24 meeting included community announcements, approval of consent agenda items, debate over heritage designation for two Anglican church properties on Yonge Street, and approval of a new operating agreement between the city and the public library. Council ultimately supported the heritage designations, including stained glass windows as heritage attributes, and approved the library agreement.
Council opened with a land acknowledgment and community announcements. Mayor David West promoted Richmond Hill's July 1 Canada Day celebrations at Richmond Green beginning at 2 p.m., saying the city's event has previously won awards. Council also highlighted the final free Concert in the Park event at Lake Wilcox Park and an upcoming community garage sale hosted by the Jefferson Community Association. A recent community barbecue was reported to have drawn more than 5,000 residents and more than 50 volunteers.
Council considered notices of intention to designate 1003 Yonge Street, St. John the Baptist Anglican Church, and 12125 Yonge Street, St. Mary's Anglican Church, as heritage properties. David Tang, representing legal counsel for the church, objected to including stained glass windows as protected heritage attributes. He told council, "these windows are expressions, and they're expressions which are protected pursuant to the charter and section 2B of the charter of human rights. The freedom of expression, and that right includes the right to actually both say something or express something through artistic and symbolic stained glass imagery, as well as to say nothing at all." He also argued that "if a atheistor a person of a different religious umuh tradition buys the property, they may not want to have a window, uh for example, uh that that that effectively worships Jesus uh on on their property."
Council voted to support staff recommendations that included the stained glass windows as heritage attributes. During debate, councillors discussed whether the Ontario Heritage Act would still allow future alteration requests. Councillor Karen Cilevitz asked, "Is it imperative that the windows stay exactly where they are or just that they don't destroy it?" The discussion focused on whether heritage protection could preserve the windows while still allowing future applications under the act.
Council also discussed the provincial deadline affecting municipal heritage registries. Mayor David West said, "none of us on council really want to be in the situation that we're in right now where the provincial government has changed the rules and given us a very short timeline to either designate some of these historical assets that we have in Richmond Hill or lose them forever." He also said council needed to act on properties it considers significant before they fall off the registry.
Council approved a new operating agreement between the city and Richmond Hill Public Library. The agreement replaces an earlier arrangement and sets out service, governance, and financial accountability terms while maintaining the library's legislated independence. The city manager said, "I want to take the opportunity to say it is it is one of the most complex agreements that I've worked on in my career. A lot of negotiation and I want to take the opportunity in front of council to thank all of the city staff that were involved in getting us here today. I think what you have in front of you is a very good agreement. It's clear. It's concise. It depicts our level of service and it moves us forward as partners together in the future."
The following members of council were identified as present or participating:
Other participants identified in the notes: