Heritage Designation
Municipal Heritage Property is recognized as being of major significance to the history of our community. Protected by City bylaw, designated properties must be maintained and the key heritage features cannot be altered without approval from the City.

Designating a property as a Municipal Heritage Property can be of value to an owner; bringing public recognition, pride of ownership, marketing potential for commercial purposes, and possible enhanced economic value of the property.

Incentives for eligible conservation work:

Fixed Elements

• Property tax abatement up to 50% of costs related to restoration of architectural elements and renovation to meet building code requirements where it affects heritage elements of the building.
  
  
• Refund of 50% of any building permit fees related to eligible project costs.
  
  
• Grants may be provided for non-governmental, tax-exempt properties, based on the property tax abatement formula up to a maximum of $10,000.
  
  

Flexible Elements

• The City of Saskatoon will negotiate an appropriate "bundle" of flexible support services for each individual property. This may include working to develop building code equivalencies, providing streetscaping elements which enhance the heritage structure, or rezoning by agreement for adaptive reuse of the property.
  

In return for the assisance provided, the owner will agree to certain conditions designed to protect and conserve the structure in an appropriate way.

Requirements to protect Designated properties:

• The owner is required to maintain the property and must have civic approval to alter the heritage elements of the property. This protection is in the form of a bylaw, which is registered against the title of the property and continues to apply when ownership changes.
  
  
• The abatement may be suspended or revoked if the property owner does not comply with the conditions of the bylaw.
  
  
• Other conditions might include specific requirements on how the property is to be conserved, restored or adapted to the new use, an approved preventative maintenance plan, public access to a commercial structure, and a brochure on the structure's history.
  

For more information on submitting applications or other Heritage Programs, see the Heritage Conservation Program Brochure.