City heritage officials are proposing to put all of Queen Street West between Bathurst Street and Gladstone Avenue under a heritage designation.
That stretch of Queen Street West is about two kilometres long and is home to 330 properties.
Of these buildings, the city said 239 are of historic interest and 91 are not.
In January 2023, the province tightened criteria for historic designations, which the proposal for Queen Street must to comply with, according to a report submitted to Toronto and East York Community Council in mid-November.
To designate an area under the the new rules, as opposed to a single building, at least a quarter of the impacted properties must satisfy at least two heritage criteria of a possible nine. Along that stretch of Queen Street, the report said at least 72 per cent of properties meet the standard.
The report was written by Mary MacDonald, the city's senior manager for heritage planning.
The stretch of Queen Street under consideration was built out starting in the late 19th century to serve city neighbourhoods as they grew westward.
"An early example of main street commercial development in Toronto, the district conveys a defined sense of place, with most of its buildings constructed from the 1880s to the 1920s," MacDonald wrote. "[It] boasts a high concentration of late-19th and early-20th century commercial buildings, showcasing a variety of architectural styles of the period."
The 91 "non-contributing" properties, or those defined as not being of heritage interest, were either built after the early 20th century, or in cases where the "building's integrity was substantially compromised."
These properties face lighter regulation and changes must only be "compatible with cultural heritage value and heritage attributes of the district and adjacent contributing properties."
The 239 "contributing properties" would face stricter rules.
If designated, tearing them down would be forbidden, "except in the case of a catastrophic loss and where losses were not the result of demolition by neglect, deferred maintenance, or purposeful damage to the property."
Architectural details such as roofs, windows and doors, exterior walls, storefronts and entrances would be regulated.
If passed by the Toronto and East York Community Council on Dec. 4, the proposal will go to city council, which has the authority to designate properties under provincial law.
