Six property owners have filed appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal, stalling and potentially killing the expansion of Old Town’s heritage district, writes Brian Marshall.

“Is it any surprise that several smaller Ontario municipalities, with limited budgets and much tighter staff constraints, might opt for a draconian ‘hard line in the sand’ in their bylaws that denies access to any and all electoral activities?” writes Brian Marshall.

“Should any future council enact an interim control bylaw, underwritten by a duly compliant study, it will be largely legally unassailable,” writes Brian Marshall.

Premier Doug Ford’s “populist presentation” is “a facade behind which his government diligently works to centralize power, control and decision-making in the premier and cabinet ministers’ offices,” writes Brian Marshall.

“Hospitality, viticulture and agriculture are the career choices of a comparable few, not the many. The town of Niagara-on-the-Lake has focused for so long and with single-minded purpose on tourism that it has largely become a single-source economy,” writes Brian Marshall.

“We have to do more than put a Band-Aid on a broken system — otherwise, flooding will become the new norm,” writes Brian Marshall.

“Without proper maintenance,” writes Brian Marshall, “in a short period of time, a drain can lose its effectiveness to manage water and help to prevent flooding.”

“While the current council does not bear full responsibility for the sad state of our infrastructure, its decision to greenlight development applications that rely on the same inadequate and failing infrastructure must be called into question,” writes Brian Marshall.

“What do we want our legislative bodies — municipal and provincial — to do to underwrite our shared wish relative to protecting Ontario’s heritage?” writes Brian Marshall.

Over the last five centuries, says Frank Lloyd Wright, what humanity has called architecture has been “phony”: “It was not innate, it wasn’t organic and it didn’t have the character of nature.” 

“This non-profit took the bitter pill in favour of supporting the health and welfare of the community they are anchored in. And, that decision, in and of itself, is a shining example of a cultural institution that understands its vital connection to the local greater good,” writes Brian Marshall.

“The finished structure will not only become the dominant building within the Queen-Picton heritage conservation district, but abruptly clash with and diminish the built-heritage assets,” writes Brian Marshall of the new Royal George Theatre.

“Bit by bit, the legal underpinning by which a municipality can defensibly justify decisions to preserve its community in the face of a developer’s application are eroded,” writes Brian Marshall.

“Any correctly thinking council — one that represents the good of the town and its residents as opposed to commercial real estate investors — would support proper controls and a cap on the short-term rental market,” writes Brian Marshall.

“Ironic that NOTL, at about a quarter of the population of Portland, should have identical total (2022 vs. 2024) numbers for licensed short-term rentals,” writes Brian Marshall.

“At the very least, this application should not have been deemed complete until it complied with the provisions of the tribunal’s decision. Instead, it was given the go-ahead,” writes Brian Marshall.

“Nobody is sure who coined the term ‘sleepy little town,’ but one thing is for certain: in the past few years, the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake certainly cannot be described in those terms,” writes Brian Marshall.

“An intelligent man concerned with the welfare of this province’s citizens would come to very different decisions than what is currently occurring at Queen’s Park,” writes Brian Marshall.

“There are those who respect our built heritage, who embrace the generations that have come before and understand how traditional buildings add to our community,” writes Brian Marshall.

“Doug Ford’s government is taking a page out of Trump’s playbook to introduce equally ill-advised legislation with dire future impacts on provincial and local levels,” writes Brian Marshall.