The city will inspect Westdale Theatre to potentially designate it as a heritage building, and will let the theatre's owners know of this plan in a letter later this month.
The Westdale Theatre was built in 1935 and is an iconic part of Westdale and the McMaster area.
Hamilton heritage officials will inspect the 1935 theatre to see if it's worthy of a heritage designation, likely in 2018. If the designation happens, it will make the theatre – Hamilton's last single-screen theatre and the first "built for sound" – harder to modify or demolish.
Residents are increasingly worried about the fate of the theatre, said Aidan Johnson, Ward 1 councillor. He's made several attempts to meet with the owners to find out their plans, and pushed the city to move ahead with the designation anyway.
"People want the Westdale protected and well used," Johnson said after a planning committee meeting Tuesday, when city councillors voted to move ahead.
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The Westdale Theatre has been an anchor for the neighbourhood for nearly eight decades. (Paul Wilson/ CBC)
Designating the Westdale, he said, has "a huge amount of community support."
Full story: CBC