Beacon Hill Park will be protected as a municipal heritage site.

City councillors agreed yesterday to the designation recommended by senior heritage planner Steve Barber, who calls Beacon Hill one of the most significant Canadian public parks of the nineteenth century -- comparable to Mount Royal Park in Montreal. Ross Bay Cemetery has been a municipal heritage site since 1997.

Coun. Pam Madoff said the designation won't mean the park is "frozen in time."

"This provides the framework to be able to be responsible stewards," said Madoff, adding day-to-day operations such as maintenance or pruning won't be affected by the designation, which ensures heritage values are considered in any changes.

But Coun. Geoff Young said he's concerned by the blanket nature of the designation.

"There's a whole lot of things in Beacon Hill Park that in my view don't require this protection," Young said, citing greenhouses, piles of compost, parking lots and playing fields.

"I don't want to have to have the advice of our heritage committee or a heritage planner if we're going to make a decision about whether to install an all-weather field in place of the existing all-weather fields in the corner of the park."

Mayor Dean Fortin said staff would clearly not have to bring a report to council before changing a pile of compost.

"It's ridiculous to suggest we can't cut the grass without going to council," he said.

Barber's report to council says the 74.5-hectare park has heritage value because of its use by social and cultural groups for more than a millennium.

It has served as a dwelling place and harvesting ground for First Nations, a strategic defence site for both First Nations and the British colony, a landmark for British sailing ships, a recreational ground for Victorians for 150 years and a model of municipal-park landscape design of its time.