How did the Legg residence, an A-listed mansion at 1241 Harwood in the Vancouver Heritage Register end up slated for demolition? The simple answer would be to state that the Development Permit Board (DPB) approved an application for a 17-storey tower on Monday Dec 12th that would necessitate the removal of the Legg Residence. The long answer is that it is far more complicated. First and foremost, the DPB was under no obligation to support this development, as it was above both the outright density and height allowed by the zoning for the site. The approval was done at the discretion of the voting members of the DPB (all three public servants working for the City: Director of Planning Brent Toderian, Deputy City Manager Sadhu Johnston, and General Manager of Engineering Peter Judd). The DPB could have used their discretionary power to drive a much harder bargain with the developer by keeping both the Legg Residence and Tulip tree — by allowing for an extra 0.5 to 1.7FSR on the property and/or permitting a slight relaxation in height (4-6 storeys outright).
There’s certainly a bit of history behind how the mansion ended up the hands of the current owner, and this development approved by the DPB appears to be directly against the wishes of the donor. The mansion was originally owned by Dorothy Fuchs; she actually lived in the mansion and had it passed on to her from her late husband. In the last year of Mrs. Fuchs’ life, she went through an elaborate number of steps in an attempt to try to save both the Legg residence and the giant Tulip tree on the site in perpetuity. Little did she know that her wishes would not be respected. The official $1 sale of the property took place on March 3, 2004 to a numbered company named 5253 Investments (see document image to left). The market value of the property was stated as a mere $1,371,300 in this sale. The address in this sale for lawyer Leopold Amighetti’s workplace and of 5253 Investments point to the same suite on West Georgia Street. The whole idea behind setting up 5253 Investments was likely to separate the Legg Residence from Mrs. Fuchs’ estate plan. In this manner her daughters would not have been able to interfere with the distribution of her assets under the Wills Variation Act. In a possible scenario, a charity could be the sole beneficiary of rental income from the units in the Legg Residence in perpetuity. Mrs. Fuchs was a supporter of charities that benefit animals; in her will she named The Animal Welfare program at UBC as a beneficiary along with the Vancouver Foundation – an organization that assists with setting up and distributing endowment funds.
Dorothy Fuchs was a director of 5253 Investments (BC0684251) from 2004/03/08, along with William Bice. Mrs. Fuchs ceased to be a director on August 25, 2004 at which time Mr. Bice became the sole director until his death in January of 2006. Then Leo Amighetti, Q.C. stepped in as director on Jan 27, 2006. Finally Kai Yan Deng became the director on July 17, 2006; likely acquiring 5253 Investments at this time. The change of directors is part of the public record for 5253 Investments. The details of agreements between a charity and Mr. Amighetti, Mrs. Fuchs and Mr. Bice are not currently in the public domain. The present owners of 5253 Investments have not publicly identified themselves at the public hearing or at the development permit hearing; rather they have relied on Bing Thom Architects to represent them.
At the time of the public hearing (on May 17, 19 & 31) speakers who personally knew Mrs. Fuchs said that it was her intention to keep both the Legg residence and Tulip tree. In hindsight the safest way to preserve the property would have been to deed it to the City of Vancouver. Michael Heeney of Bing Thom Architects told residents that Mrs. Fuchs passed the property to a charity before it was sold to the current developer. The property never changed hands; however, the ownership of the shares of the company presumably changed hands. At the Dec 12th DPB meeting Mr. Heeney told the panel that the applicant Acadia purchased 5253 Investments. This is a standard way of avoiding paying Property Transfer Tax; there is no change at the Land Title Office if the ownership of a company changes hands. In fact this is commonly how speculators flip properties by setting up a separate company for each property and selling the company instead of the property.
The Development Permit Board could have done a lot more to save the Legg Residence. The failure rests at squarely at the feet of the DPB and planning staff. Planning staff with the help of independent consultants could calculate the coverage for the proposal and not rely solely on the FSR figures provided by the developer (2.2). Listening to the concerns of residents and looking at the intent of the zoning guidelines, it is very hard to justify a 17-storey tower on a blockface that already contains a highrise and has a substantial impact on surrounding buildings.
Further information on the outright and conditional zoning for the Legg residence property can be found in the RM-5A guidelines and the RM-5A District Schedule for the West End.
City council turned down a Heritage Revitalization Agreement (HRA) on May 31 for 1241 Harwood. Hence it is within the rights of the property owner to demolish the house and cut down the giant tree; however, this is only true if they build up to a density of 1.00 FSR and to a height of 4-6 storeys. Otherwise they must negotiate with the Development Permit Board or with City Council to achieve higher density and/or greater height. The weak application of conditional zoning by the Development Permit Board has resulted in the passage of a development for a 17-storey tower without a clear guarantee that the Tulip Tree will survive the construction. Salvaging materials from the Legg Residence during its demolition is simply insufficient; Vancouver deserves better.
[Note: previous articles on the subject are available here, here and here.
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