A hotel next door. A tax bill that makes you question what you’re getting. Parked cars that block your view of the road.
For residents who shared their thoughts with The Lake Report, the municipal election comes down to decisions they can feel close to home.
In Old Town, lifelong resident Deborah Dutton has lost trust in the people making decisions.
In Queenston, Adrian Schoot Uiterkamp worries about what happens when neighbours are replaced by short-term guests.
In Glendale, Sonal Ahluwalia worries that student parking near Niagara College creates dangerous blind spots on neighbourhood streets.
Residents from all five of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s villages — Old Town, Virgil, St. Davids, Queenston and Glendale — offered their personal hopes and concerns ahead of the election.
Their views differ on development, council’s performance and who to elect. But their concerns come back to what the next council needs to do: keep neighbourhoods safe, make tax dollars count and protect the town they call home.
Who’s living next door?
For Ahluwalia, protecting her Glendale neighbourhood starts with maintaining properties and keeping streets safe.
“My biggest concern is the growing impact of absentee landlords and poorly maintained rental properties on our neighbourhoods,” she said.
Ahluwalia said excessive student parking creates blind spots and reckless driving threatens streets where families and young children live.
“This isn’t about being against students,” she said. “It’s about landlord accountability, proper parking and stronger enforcement.”
In Queenston, Schoot Uiterkamp’s concern about short-term rentals is the loss of permanent neighbours.
At one point, he said, three properties neighbouring him were short-term rentals.
“It hollows out the small community which you live in,” he said.
He wants limits on short-term rentals in each village, rather than only across the municipality.
Paula L. Paul, who has lived in Queenston for more than 35 years, also wants fewer short-term rentals and less oversized development. She raised her family there and now has grandchildren in the village.
“Queenston was a wonderful place to raise our family,” she said. “Now, with grandchildren in the village, we hope that the sense of community will continue to thrive.”
The price of growth
For fellow Queenston resident Paul Bevan, the cost of living is his first priority.
“It’s very expensive to live here — I mean, very expensive,” he said.
He questions whether the property taxes he pays deliver enough value but still speaks warmly about his village.
“Queenston is a great place to live,” he said, calling the community “strong and united.”
He wants to keep it that way, opposing development on land behind the Niagara River Parkway, north of York Road.
“There’s two parts of the land — one’s 30 and the other is 22 acres — and we definitely don’t want them developed,” he said.
Virgil resident Mark Dawson is unhappy about the hotel being constructed at the former site of the Parliament Oak school and the proposal for a hotel at the Rand Estate.
He wants whoever is elected to carefully consider all proposals affecting heritage properties.
“I’d say really think through before we give away our heritage properties, or think about what to do with them,” he said.
For Dutton, 77, who has lived in NOTL all her life, the Parliament Oak development is part of a deeper disappointment.
She said she is “so upset” about what officials and staff have “done to the town.” The Old Town resident objects to a hotel neighbouring homes.
Her assessment of her confidence in decision-makers was just two words: “No trust.”
Fellow Old Town resident Rocco Marchese questions the need for more large hotels in the first place.
“I don’t know what the need is going to be for those large hotels.”
He wants to see how full they are once they open.
Plan ahead, then follow through
When Rob Hutchison moved to town 10 years ago, he thought developer John Hawley was doing a good job and looked forward to seeing his plans take shape.
Now, the Garrison Village resident sees less optimism and more negativity around development.
“I’m thinking there’s too much emphasis on anti-development,” said Hutchison.
He wants clearer planning about what should be built and where, rather than decisions that appear to follow developers’ proposals.
“And maybe they do — and the developers are still playing games. But it just seems very unorganized,” he said.
For Schoot Uiterkamp, following through on street safety is another priority.
He said he puts a pylon on the road while cutting his grass because passing coach buses come too close.
He wants lower speed limits and more speed humps, including near the village’s daycare. He describes working with town staff as decent, but implementation as “super, super, super slow.”
In St. Davids, Madis Tambre wants planning backed by practical work.
Flood control is his top concern.
Tambre alleges poor maintenance of existing flood-control equipment contributed to flood damage and said he wants crews to identify and clear blocked ditches, drains and culverts.
“Dam mechanisms should be tested monthly, if not weekly,” he added.
Tambre also wants roads, sewers, water mains and other infrastructure ready to handle additional demand before new development proceeds, along with consequences for developers who disregard the rules.
“If developments commence without proper permits, they should be dismantled, the area restored, the developer fined, and not allowed — including any firms that they are connected to, or with — to apply for a development permit for five years,” he said.
Tambre wants the hospital converted into a seniors’ retirement home or rehabilitation centre. He also proposes adding a raised level above existing parking lots to create more spaces, and having tour buses drop passengers at designated locations, leave and return at a set time to keep buses from waiting in town.
Fellow St. Davids resident Cheney Venn, a recent arrival, gives council credit for preserving NOTL’s size and limiting the pace of building. That matters to someone who moved here seeking a quieter life.
“I wanted to get out of the GTA to have a more calm presence in where I live,” he said.
The retired police officer, who spent 31 years on the job, feels safe in his neighbourhood but wants continued attention to safety. He worries that police crackdowns in one city can push criminal activity into another community.
“You’re arresting people, but sometimes you’re just pushing the crime out of that area and displacing it in another community,” he said.
Having seen amalgamation go on in other different areas, that’s also a concern for him.
“Some areas kind of get forgotten about” when amalgamated, Venn said.
Who earns their vote?
Dawson wants both experience and new voices at the council table.
“I’d say that a healthy part of the democratic process is getting a balance between the old and the new,” he said. “So I intend to vote for some of the incumbents and a couple of the new candidates.”
For Alex Vujcuf, a private chef who lives in Chautauqua, a neighbourhood in Old Town, choosing a candidate means weighing what he hears against what he has seen personally.
He said infrastructure and taxes are among the issues reaching him, even though he does not closely follow politics.
“I believe in the things I see and hear and experience,” he said.
Wearing a Goettler badge when interviewed, Vujcuf readily explained the connection.
“It’s personal,” he said. Goettler is his “number one client.”
“Of course I’m going to support my number one client.”
Vujcuf said working for Goettler has given him a firsthand view of the candidate.
“I can say that he is a hard worker,” he said.
Other residents shared opinions but declined to give their full names.
One said she would vote against those who supported the Parliament Oak hotel and for those who opposed it.
Another wanted younger voices on council and favoured council candidate Weston Miller. A third raised taxes and amalgamation as concerns.
A St. Davids resident who has lived in town for more than 30 years wanted new and returning councillors — and no roundabout near his home.
One offered simple advice to other voters: “Vote.”
Why?
“Because you could end up with somebody like Donald Trump.”
