Cambridge council votes down plan to demolish former Preston Springs Hotel

Aging Cambridge hotel won't be demolished soon From CTV Kitchener's Rosie Del Campo: Cambridge council voted Tuesday not to demo the Preston Springs Hotel, which is a heritage building.

KITCHENER — Cambridge city council has voted against demolishing the former Preston Springs Hotel.

Council decided to refuse the property owner's request to demolish the building at a meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

Haastown, the company that owns the property, sent an application to tear down the building in August. Council had 90 days to respond to that request.

The hotel, which is located on Fountain Street South in Cambridge, is designated as a heritage building. The city would have needed to reverse that designation for demolition plans to go forward.

Changing the hotel's designation is currently before the Conservation Review Board.

Ward 1 Coun. Donna Reid said she was worried about the building collapsing or creating more problems due to continuous freezing and thawing.

"I'm not only concerned for the people who go in that building," she said. "I have to have concern for residents, my constituents, who live around there."

"It's a very dangerous situation. We can't sit on this building and let it deteriorate even more."

Ward 4 Coun. Pam Wolf said she understood Reid's passion about the building and agreed that safety was a priority. However, she said she wouldn't support the plan to tear it down.

"If our building inspectors and engineers feel that the building is going to collapse, they have the power to do an emergency order," she said.

She said council has started a process that could allow the public to come up with ways to save the building.

Haastown can appeal the decision at the local Planning Appeal Tribunal, which would make a final decision on the building's future.

Council also voted unanimously in favour of adding security measures to downtown Galt and extending the program into February. In September, the city announced a plan to have security guards patrol the area overnight. Security will patrol seven days a week, with two officers on foot and two in patrol cars.