Community Heritage Commissions: Overview

Heritage Conservation: A Community Guide was written in 1995 in response to the adoption of the then new Local Government Act, which provided new heritage conservation stewardship opportunities to local governments.

About the community heritage commission (CHC), this document says, “[It] is intended to assist a council or regional district board with the management and implementation of community heritage conservation planning and activities… including the ability to undertake support activities and/or to take on other non-regulatory activities delegated to it by a council or regional district board. A community heritage commission may:

• advise local government on matters included in the commission’s Terms of Reference,
• advise local government on matters referred to it by local government, and/or
• undertake or support heritage activities authorized by local government.”

This guide makes an important distinction between a CHC and a planning commission: while planning commissions will not typically consider heritage issues, heritage commissions will look at broader community planning issues so that heritage conservation is considered in a fuller context. It is for this reason the efforts of the two commissions should be coordinated.

It is worth mentioning another resource, Heritage Planning: A Guide for Local Government (1992), which provides information about the purpose of the heritage advisory committee, the predecessor to the CHC: “to advise on all matters relating to land use, community planning or the proposed bylaws and permits relating to them. The commission may advise on such matters as official community plans, zoning, development permits and subdivision and development requirements.”

Appointed by the local government council, CHC follows approved terms of reference to support the local government to manage and implement community heritage conservation planning and activities, which can relate to land use, community planning or the proposed bylaws, permits, official community plans, zoning, development permits and subdivision, and development requirements.