Dear editor:

Thank you your excellent coverage of the Randwood Estates story over the years.

Residents for Sustainable Tourism is pleased that the town’s planning process worked as it should.

The original hotel approved for the Randwood Estates was a scaled-back version that better fit the neighbourhood and might have been good for sustainable tourism.

Hopefully in future developers like Two Sister Resorts and Benny Marrotta could be notified before they purchase land what the rules are.  

The much-larger resort they were hoping to build would have adversely affected the residents in the area and contributed to the overtourism of Niagara-on-the-Lake.  

Overtourism is something that I know community leaders like Mr. Marrotta would not want to happen to our historic, beautiful small town.  

Kudos to council and well-organized groups like SORE (Save Our Rand Estate) and other residents for following the plan and drawing a line in the sand so that overzealous developers understand what the rules are to preserve the unique nature of Niagara-on-the-Lake for residents and visitors.  

The last thing  residents of Queenston, Virgil or St. Davids need is multiple 500-room hotels with outdoor entertainment complexes. There is a limit to how much Niagara-on-the-Lake can handle.

Bruce Gitelman
Spokesperson

Residents for Sustainable Tourism