The Town of Niagara-on- the-Lake should reconsider spending funds on a series of legal battles, many of which don’t bear much prospect of victory.
In April the town will defend its decision to claim historical significance of the entire Randwood Estate by means of designation.
Benny Marotta has said if he wins he will sue for the legal costs too. It isn’t yet known how much that will be. So why don’t we just not spend the money?
As much as some people might not like the idea of a hotel or another subdivision in town, fighting what is likely a losing battle and spending taxpayer dollars to do it doesn’t seem like a wise reaction.
Fighting losing battles might do great things for campaigns, but it hurts the town as a whole when it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars — maybe more.
Besides, it’s looking very much like municipal elections won’t be the same next time around anyway, so our council members should toss any cares to the wind when it comes to votes and just do what’s fiscally responsible.
If we don’t back down, we have to keep in mind we could be sharing the costs with another municipality soon.
It wouldn’t be the most kind start for us to ask our new spouse(s) to swallow up our debts when we marry.
It’s a safe bet other developers are impacted by the town’s actions too.
That fire has already started to smoulder, and developers know each other and work together.
Given the loud, negative public sentiment toward Marotta, skilled lawyers could make the case that the town made a political decision to take him on and is acting out of malice.
It really does seem like we’re fighting a losing battle.
If a hotel at Randwood isn’t going to cause the apocalypse, we might as well let it happen. Or we can wait to see how much it really costs us.
Better solution: stop spending our money frivolously.