Niagara-on-the-Lake council has called on Solmar to show whether its latest Rand Estate proposal can be redesigned to better protect the historic property.
But it stopped short of committing to the heritage committee’s recommendation that Benny Marotta’s development company save several specific historic features identified in an Ontario Land Tribunal ruling from almost two years ago.
Staff will consider how those findings apply to the new four-property proposal before reporting back to council, which has not approved or rejected the development.
Council sent the recommendation to staff for consideration as it reviews how those findings apply to the new four-property proposal, which has not yet been approved or rejected.
At its July 21 meeting, Aimee Alderman, the director of planning, building and development services, said that although staff supports keeping as many heritage features as possible, it needs more information from Solmar before deciding how the tribunal findings from 2024 apply to the new proposal.
In October that year, the Ontario Land Tribunal ruled on a different development plan for the Rand Estate, finding that plans to build a subdivision there needed to be reworked and that Solmar needs to retain, repair and protect several heritage features of the estate.
“The referral back to staff is not insinuating that we will not abide by the Ontario Land Tribunal orders,” she said.
“It’s simply an allowance to allow staff to receive the information that is required to reasonably assess all of those heritage attributes.”
Alderman said the previous tribunal case involved two Rand Estate properties, while the latest application covers all four. She said further information from Solmar will allow staff to assess the estate as a whole and consider how the earlier tribunal findings apply to the new proposal.
Solmar is pitching a five-storey, 111-room hotel, a spa, five three-storey residential buildings with up to 270 units and 514 parking spaces across the Rand Estate.
The municipal heritage committee met on July 8 and received a town staff report finding Solmar had not shown its proposed hotel and residential development was the least intrusive option or that it had exhausted all reasonable heritage-first alternatives.
Staff said the plan would cause “substantial adverse impacts” to the estate’s protected buildings, landscape and other heritage features, including removing or negatively affecting about 215 of its 694 trees on the property.
The proposed hotel would also be larger than the existing heritage buildings and would not be physically subordinate to them.
The heritage committee backed staff’s recommendation that Solmar provide more analysis of the proposal’s effects on the historic estate.
It also added a stronger motion recommending Solmar follow the tribunal’s earlier findings, including preserving key buildings, landscape features and mature trees.
Council endorsed the call for more analysis of the hotel’s size, road access, parking, residential layout, tree loss and proposed changes to heritage features. But it referred the separate recommendation to staff to determine how the October 2024 tribunal findings apply to the new proposal.
Coun. Sandra O’Connor questioned whether the referral meant Solmar would not necessarily be required to follow the tribunal’s findings.
“Very fine line here,” she said.
Alderman said staff would continue considering the tribunal’s findings while reviewing the new application.
“We want to have a very comprehensive review of all the attributes on the property,” she said.
The referral passed 7-2, with O’Connor and Coun. Gary Burroughs opposed.
