The following is a letter to the lord mayor and council.

I understand the Parliament Oak property at 325 King St. in Old Town is zoned institutional or greenbelt and the developer was well aware of this zoning and what he was allowed to build when he purchased the land.

I’m sure that members of council will agree their responsibility is to determine what is the ultimate and best use of this land and what will offer the greatest benefit to the community, and not necessarily the greatest benefit to the developer.

This is simply a land-use issue and, at this very preliminary stage, the design of the building in this proposal is totally irrelevant (although, it’s a building I would expect to see in Paris or Brussels, not in Niagara).

I make the following comments as a resident in the area and as an architect who has been involved in the design and operation of almost every hotel in the Old Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake.

This block of land is surrounded on all four sides by small single-family houses. The reason that one should never impose an intensive use such as a large commercial hotel and conference centre in the middle of small single-family houses is not theoretical; it’s very logical.

Any hotel operation requires a large number of service trucks bringing in tons of food, beverages and supplies daily and removing garbage, recycling materials and waste every day.

These trucks will use the shortest and quickest routes to get to the hotel and those routes are Regent, Centre and Gage streets. As the site plans show, all servicing and deliveries take place on Centre and Gage.

Dozens of trucks will be travelling four and a half blocks from Mississagua Street through narrow village roads to reach these service areas. These are not pickup trucks.

If you’ve seen Sysco or Gordon Food Service trucks, you’ll know that these are transport trucks – and big trucks and small homes aren’t compatible. That’s basically why a large hotel shouldn’t be located in the middle of a neighbourhood consisting only of single-family houses.

But it’s not only trucks that are a concern. Cars will also be a problem since the hundreds of staff will be driving from other areas in the Niagara Peninsula to work at the hotel.

I calculated from the drawings submitted that there will be more than 700 dining and lounge seats. Yet only about one-third of those seats will be occupied by the hotel guests.

Therefore, contrary to R.V. Anderson’s report, the parking shown is about one-third of what should be provided when staff, dining guests, conference-goers and meeting attendees are added to the hotel’s guest parking requirements.

These cars will also be travelling not only on King Street but also on Regent, Centre and Gage, where they may be parking, destroying these narrow roads lined with small heritage homes.

In conclusion, this developer has a habit of buying land with specific zoning and then trying to change its use to anything that will maximize his profit. The community and council showed him that he couldn’t do that at Randwood and hopefully they will have the same resolve with the Parliament Oak school site.

As tiresome as this is becoming, we are under no obligation to please the developer or to consider a hotel as an appropriate use for this property.

The developer should be encouraged to propose a use consistent with the zoning that applied to the land when he purchased it, and he should ensure that any future use will be compatible with the neighbourhood in use, size, scale and character.

Wayne Murray
Chapman Murray Associates Architects Inc.
NOTL