Last week’s first installment in our series on the “Wild West” of NOTL’s wine industry highlights a much larger issue: the town’s failure to enforce its own — possibly outdated — bylaws.

Again and again, we see lawsuits against the town, from the pickleball noise fiasco to the more recent lawsuit filed by a neighbor of Konzelmann Winery over event noise.

The town lost the pickleball case, and it’s likely to lose again because it’s not difficult to prove that it routinely neglects its own laws — sometimes even granting permissions that contradict them.

We found the title of our series fitting because, in many ways, the town seems to allow businesses to operate unchecked until a formal complaint is made.

In other words, there’s no sheriff in town, and the saloons are getting rowdy.

Then, after the damage is done, the town scrambles to clean up the mess — while our mayor insists this is the mark of a well-functioning municipality.

But the people of NOTL are smarter than that.

Since publishing our story on Ferox Winery’s apparent disregard for town bylaws, we’ve already heard from dozens of concerned residents — and politicians.

The winery’s owner, whose parents are seasoned industry professionals, should know better and should be operating within the guidelines of a farm winery. Plain and simple.

But to be clear, the goal of this series isn’t to shut down a local business — we don’t want that. What we want is meaningful change that modernizes NOTL’s zoning bylaws and ensures they reflect the realities of 2025.

That will help wineries of all sizes flourish.

Ferox has supported this paper in the past, but that doesn’t matter. Our job is to report the news and push for accountability, no matter who spends ad dollars with us.

While politicians like our mayor may claim the system isn’t broken, it often takes just one well-researched article to prove otherwise.

That’s why we’re calling on council to take a hard look at its enforcement policies and zoning bylaws.

Let’s create a level playing field for all wineries, where small and large operators alike can thrive — fairly.

editor@niagaranow.com