Skip to content

Significant heritage house on Beach Drive to be restored

Heritage Revitalization Agreement approved as part of subdivision proposal
10642370_web1_18023-OBN-BoydHouse
A historical photo of the Beach Drive home that now has a new Heritage Revitalization Agreement. (Oak Bay Archives)

A house on Beach Drive with significant heritage value will be restored and preserved under a new Heritage Revitalization Agreement between the municipality and the property owner after a unanimous vote at council on Feb. 13. This comes after the homeowner applied to subdivide their land into four single-family residential lots.

The “Boyd Residence,” a 1927 Georgian Revival style house at 644 Beach Drive, is a surviving work by prolific local architect, Samuel Maclure, and was originally built for Gardiner Custer Boyd, a successful lumberman. Boyd ran the Cowichan Lumber Company but moved his family from Lake Cowichan to Victoria so that his children could get a quality education.

The current owner and the district both agree that the property has heritage value and wish to preserve the heritage building, providing for its preservation, rehabilitation, restoration and maintenance.

A local government can, by bylaw, enter into a heritage revitalization agreement with the owner of a heritage property, setting out the terms and conditions of continuing protection for the heritage value and heritage character of the property.

Part of the process involved hiring Donald Luxton and Associates, experts in heritage planning, to create a Conservation Plan.

The Conservation Plan is based on Parks Canada’s Standards & Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada. It outlines the preservation, restoration, and rehabilitation that will occur as part of the proposed development.

The subdivision itself has not yet gone through the approval process. The Heritage Revitalization Agreement will terminate if the subdivision has not been approved within two years.


 
keri.coles@oakbaynews.com

Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

keri.coles@oakbaynews.com