Dear editor:

When we purchased our first property in NOTL in 1991, relatives and friends all said “Oh, it’s such a beautiful little town. We love visiting it. How lucky you are!”

We had the Niagara Advance sent to our Toronto home so that we could keep up with local news.

When we finally moved here permanently in 2005, NOTL hadn’t really changed much.

We were used to tourists and welcomed them. In fact, like many others who have chosen to retire here, we felt — year-round — as though we were on holiday.

Now, many of those same friends and relatives have rather different thoughts about our town.

They are reluctant to visit in the summer — too much traffic, an explosion of wineries, Queen Street far too crowded for easy strolling and, as more than one has said, “A Dairy Queen? On main street?”

Still, some of them continue to come to the Shaw and park in my driveway.

But what I’m really writing about is how our current council seems to be strongly focusing on expanding tourism, without thinking of those of us who live here and pay taxes to maintain NOTL’s services and its beauty.

We already have several very, very fine hotels, a plethora of B&Bs and VRBOs — more than enough to accommodate overnight visitors. We now have some really fabulous restaurants.

And yet, our council has said, “No, that’s not enough. Oh, yippee, we’re going to get a five-star hotel! Oh goody, let’s approve a lookalike Holiday Inn on Queen Street!”

Those approvals have not taken tax-paying citizens, and especially those who live in close proximity, into consideration. Nor have they considered where and how all those employees are going to park their cars.

After all, the majority of those future employees will not be living in NOTL, and without public transit, can we expect them to walk or hitch a ride from St. Catharines or Niagara Falls?

But, I’m mostly concerned with the homeowners whose lives will continue to be disrupted during, and long after, those two hotels are built.

Traffic and parking, already congested during the summer months and into fall, will be more of a nightmare — for all of us who live in Old Town.

In fact, when it comes time for me to move, I believe I shall be looking at an alternative to NOTL.

I’m sorry about that, but it’s obvious to me that the majority of our councillors do not care about the well-being of NOTL citizens.

More and more, tourists are their primary, secondary and tertiary goals.

Linda Sauro
Old Town