A lawyer representing a NOTL resident involved in a lawsuit against the municipality is accusing the town of not enforcing its own bylaws by allowing what he calls illegal gatherings on estate wineries.

Standing before council Sept. 24, St. Catharines-based lawyer Tom Richardson, who is a municipal law specialist, took councillors to task about special events, such as weddings, being held on estate wineries.

A practice he contends is in contradiction to current agricultural zoning bylaws. 

He was representing NOTL resident Ed Werner, who launched the suit. He lives on Lakeshore Road next to Konzelmann Estate Winery.

Richardson recapped that Werner has for several years complained to the town that events are occurring next to his home at Konzelmann, resulting in considerable disturbance.

“The Konzelmann property is zoned for the estate winery and has no provision to allow special events,” said Richardson.

“My thesis is this,” he added, speaking not specifically to the Konzelmann issue at hand, but to a practice he believes is happening at other wineries and agricultural-zoned locations across the board: “The town is now permitting wineries, Konzelmann in particular, but others as well, to evade the requirements of the zoning bylaw by just giving them a special event permit.”

Richardson questioned why the town has a bylaw if the practice is to allow these events to go ahead by simply side-stepping the rules with special event permits.

The bottom line, he added, is simple: The town is failing to go after violators of municipal legislation.

“The failure of the town to enforce bylaws passed by this council results in a municipality that is not reflective of the goals of the council as expressed in its bylaws,” he said.

Richardson said the town’s example in this case is setting a dangerous precedent.

“If the town is not going to enforce its bylaws, why should anyone comply with the town’s bylaws?” he asked.

“By not requiring compliance with its bylaws, the town is penalizing its citizens, businesses and wineries who do meet the requirements of the law and rewards others who are allowed to elect to act in defiance of the bylaws,” he said.

Richardson added that he and his client are not asking for more regulations, rather they are only asking for the enforcement of the rules that are in place.

Then he made a further request.

Referring to a motion by Coun. Maria Mavridis that was already on the agenda for the night’s meeting, that requests a town staff report on enforcement of commercial operations on all agriculturally zoned lands, Richardson implored the members to pass it.

The motion was passed and referred to town staff for investigation.

Deputy Lord Mayor Erwin Wiens, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa, thanked Richardson for his presentation and reserved judgement on whether or not bylaws are being enforced until after the staff report.

He later elaborated on his decision to defer his judgement

“There are rules in place and bylaws and site plans for wineries,” Wiens told The Lake Report.

“We enforce those as they come about through a complaint-based (system). His (Richardson’s) position is that we weren’t doing a good job. But until I get a full report from our staff, I’m not going to concede that.”

Coun. Gary Burrooughs thanked Richardson for his presentation, stating that he believes this is a matter that will need a very careful approach to unravel the rights and wrongs.

“It is a very complicated issue,” he said.

“And I am sure there will be groups on all sides worrying that their rights are (being) taken away.”

“I don’t think that is the intent,” he added, “It is a tough question that we are going to deal with.”