The following is a letter to members of NOTL council. A copy was submitted to The Lake Report for publication.

I believe it is time to just say “No” to developer Benny Marotta and his companies’ ongoing assault on the cultural heritage of Niagara-on-the-Lake.

If the town allows Mr. Marotta to demolish Parliament Oak school, we will be left with a pile of rubble in the centre of Old Town, not unlike the old Mori Gardens site in Virgil. And to what end?

The site he has purchased is one of the last institutionally zoned properties in Old Town and should remain for institutional use beneficial to our local community, not be another profit centre for a developer.

Just say no, and let him file his Ontario Land Tribunal appeal, which is where his hotel will likely end up regardless.

We don’t need another hotel and attendant traffic in the centre of Old Town and if his hotel is not approved, we’ll put up with an eyesore in the middle of Old Town for years.

I would suggest his Mori site in Virgil is much more appropriate for his grand hotel and the land is already cleared.

And, while we’re at it, don’t allow any more demolition on the Rand Estate.

Mr. Marotta’s company has already removed many of the trees and damaged too much of the estate.

If council allows him to demolish a single thing in advance of the Ontario Land Tribunal ruling on his subdivision next spring and the tribunal then rules against his subdivision application, we will have lost another part of Randwood for no reason.

Let the tribunal decide.

Bob Bader
NOTL