Niagara-on-the-Lake’s municipal and heritage planners rejected Benny Marotta’s previous development plans for the historic Rand Estate, and once again, they’re not enamored with his latest proposal.
The town published a review on Friday of the heritage impact assessment submitted as part of a plan to build a luxury hotel on the estate in Old Town, which is almost 100 years old.
The municipal heritage committee approved the review during its meeting Wednesday evening, which will be incorporated into a future staff report on the project.
The developers behind this project want to construct a five-storey Ritz-Carlton hotel on the site with 111 rooms, surface and underground parking and five residential buildings with up to 270 units, along with other features.
This comes after the Town of NOTL rejected subdivision plans for the estate, put forth by the same developers in 2023 — a decision the Ontario Land Tribunal upheld in 2024, finding that the project wasn’t “good planning in the public interest.”
Regarding this latest project, town staff say it would have “significant adverse impacts” on the historical aspects of the Rand Estate, as well as the estate’s overall cultural heritage landscape.
The heritage impact assessment the developers submitted doesn’t “sufficiently demonstrate” that what they want to do is “the least intrusive development approach” or that they’ve thoroughly considered all the “heritage-first design alternatives” possible, the review states.
Among the negative impacts to the site’s heritage, staff draw attention to the proposed hotel’s size: it will be larger than the estate’s existing structures. Staff say the developers need to further justify the hotel’s planned height, footprint and overall scale.
They mention the developers would be cutting down 215 of the estate’s 694 mature trees — making way for new buildings, residential areas and access to the underground parking and residential areas — as well as landforms, vegetation, garden areas and other parts of the Dunington-Grubb landscape.
“Mature trees constitute an important aspect of the Rand Estate and their association with the site,” the review states. Removing those trees will impact the estate’s landscape, a part of its history.
Developers may potentially remove the carriage house on 200 John St. E. to build access to the residential area and outdoor pool and spa. Staff note in the review there’s missing information about what will be done with it, as well as the Victorian wooden gazebo on 176 John St. E.
The developers will need to present a conservation plan that demonstrate how they’ll preserve the integrity of the cultural heritage landscape throughout all phases of the development and present alternative development approaches, staff write.
They also want to see an evaluation of the “combined effects” of the proposed development, a strategy to address the restoration of the Dunington-Grubb landscape and more assessment of plans to remove, relocate and alter parts of the estate like the carriage house, tea house, Victorian wooden gazebo and more.
The review was submitted by Sumra Zia, interim senior heritage planner, and Taya Devlin, manager of planning, building and development services.
During the heritage committee’s Wednesday meeting, David Snelgrove said he’s “distressed” that the developers, from his perspective, have chosen to take their preferred development for the estate and “pluck it down on the site.”
Blake Lyon, chief executive officer for Solmar and Two Sisters Resorts, told the committee he takes issue with that characterization of their process and that the developers worked diligently on these new plans.
“We invite your comments and we’ll continue to refine this,” he said. “This is meant to be a world destination to bring the history that you’re all working hard to protect and to demonstrate to these new visitors coming to Niagara-on-the-Lake.”
