A character merit assessment reviews the front and street-facing sides of a house to determine if it retains character features.
Apply for assessment before renovating, redeveloping, or demolishing a house built before 1940.
Why you need an assessment
An assessment determines:
- If a house is eligible for conditional aspects of zoning, such as additional floor area
- The level of recycling required if a house is going to be demolished
In R1-1, an assessment is not required to determine eligibility for new building options or recycling rates. It is only required if the applicant is pursuing an (optional) character house retention proposal.
Project scope and documentation
Read the administrative bulletin PDF file (838 KB) to get direction on the general scope and documentation needed for projects proposing the retention and renovation of character merit buildings.
Resources
Character house features
Character buildings can be defined by a number of criteria.
Some zones – RT-3, RT-7/8, RT-10, RM-1, and RT-11 – use the construction date as the first measure of character merit.
Streetscape (context)
House is part of a streetscape with 2 or more character houses.
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Special considerations
In these special cases, conditional zoning provisions may be supported at the discretion of the Director of Planning.
