-7.5 C
Niagara Falls
Saturday, February 8, 2025
Letter: Council must at least revisit hotel site plan
Letter to the editor. FILE

Dear editor:

The 5-4 verdict by council on major hotel development proposals is a great wrong. It feels like a crime. A political crime.

Therefore, this is my victim impact statement.

My husband and I moved to NOTL in 2017. 

Yes, we were from the GTA, like many in this community.

Yes, we enjoyed the quaint, hometown way of life we experienced as a visitor.

Yes, we thought this might be a lovely place to retire.

But: We respect the history of this great country.

We respect the role of the Indigenous people allowing us to form a country here.

We respect the need to safeguard the history that can guide us in our future.

We purchased a 200-year-old home and believe we are stewards of our special property.

I believe we are not the only ones that care.

NOTL has councillors to help form a community in this little part of our great country.

Councillors we elected. Councillors who have not listened to those they represent. Us.

I feel betrayed.

I attended all the meetings about the redevelopment of 325 King St. — the institutional property that held the first Parliament of our young nation.

I researched the zoning, the meaning of a zoning change now and in the future of our town. Have the councillors?

There has been discussion about the height of the proposed building, not the appropriateness of the size, but the shadows?

There has been discussion that two-thirds of the property will be covered by flora, but not about the continuous wall surrounding it.

Consider this: At present, the space is open, but when the project is complete, there will be a  brick wall on three sides with no public access from the neighbourhood.

The architect left the impression, in his remarks, that our neighbourhood should be feeling luck to have a five-star hotel in what he called “a utilitarian residential neighbourhood.”

I am not only insulted by these words but suspicious that this is in fact his belief.

How can NOTL allow a builder, a building, a wall, to keep out the non five-star riffraff who live with joy and respect in our Regent, Gage, Centre, King Street community?

Please reconsider your decision on June 25. If you must approve the zoning, revisit the site plan. 

Margo Foreman
NOTL

Subscribe to our mailing list