When Angie Gilchrist painted her storefront in Perth, Ont., she was hoping to attract more customers. Instead, the business owner has attracted the attention of city officials who say the purple, orange, and lime-green façade breaks a heritage bylaw.
Gilchrist chose to repaint Shadowfax, her jewelry and clothing store located on Perth’s popular Foster Street, because it needed a new look.
But the colours she chose are against Perth’s heritage bylaws, which require business owners to conform to a palette chosen by the city.
“I didn’t plan on this happening,” Gilchrist told CTV Ottawa. “I just wanted to freshen up my storefront, honestly.”
She chose the palette based on Shadowfax’s “signature colours,” but the look turned out brighter than she anticipated. Still, Gilchrist wants to keep the storefront as is -- a decision that she hopes “brings a change to Perth.”
“[There’s] huge public support from my fellow business people and from the town itself, saying that they love it, it’s exactly what Perth needs, and that it doesn’t actually detract from the heritage aspect of the town,” Gilchrist told CTV Ottawa.
“We’re business owners; we don’t want to look tacky. We want to draw people in and take care and take pride in our store fronts.”
John Fenik, Perth’s mayor, said the town’s heritage bylaws are about preserving Perth’s history.
“The landscape reflects buildings that were built in the 1870s by Scottish stone masons,” Fenik told CTV Ottawa. “It’s always important for me and my council to keep our downtown vibrant and shops open and traffic flowing. Part of that is our heritage landscape that we want to nurture and love and preserve.”
In 2012 the town created what’s now known as the Downtown Perth Heritage Conservation District. With the conservation area came new bylaws -- one of which states that businesses have to conform to certain palettes and colours.
“We don’t want to be a Big Brother or a big bully forcing this on people but we need everybody to recognize the importance of keeping our downtown looking so spectacular, keeping it a place where people want to come, and keeping these wonderful businesses thriving,” he told CTV Ottawa.
“We want to find a compromise and I’m sure we will.”
Gilchrist says she hopes the heritage district’s colour palette becomes more flexible in the future.
The heritage bylaw was reviewed in 2014 to 2015, and there were no issues at that time. But Fenik says the council will review it again in another year or so.
“We invite people to come down and say, ‘How about adding a different colour?’ or ‘How about window treatments that are a little different?’” he told CTV Ottawa.
Gilchrist will present her case to Perth’s heritage council, and a decision will be made at a public meeting on Oct. 3.
With a report from CTV Ottawa
