Niagara-on-the-Lake council has less than 90 days to make a decision on a number of applications by the Marotta group for permits under the Heritage Act to demolish or alter most of the remaining heritage attributes on the back half of the Rand Estate.

Should council, with input from the town’s municipal heritage committee, fail to make a decision in that time, the permits will be deemed to be approved.

Should council deny those permit applications, that decision will then certainly be appealed by the Marotta group to the Ontario Land Tribunal and joined with the Planning Act applications already in front of the tribunal to allow the proposed subdivision to proceed.

Those applications are scheduled for a hearing next spring. The town and SORE are parties to that hearing.

Therefore, the only logical and appropriate decision for council is to deny all of the Heritage Act permit applications.

It is critically important to remember that the question of whether this subdivision will be approved in its current or an amended form has already been taken away from council and given to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

The Marotta companies made that decision by filing appeals with the tribunal some time ago. Our elected council was not given the opportunity of making a decision itself first.

The tribunal hearing will involve extensive expert evidence and cross-examination of those experts.

The proceeding will find facts based on the evidence and determine which expert opinions should be given the most weight. The tribunal now stands in the shoes of council and has been given the responsibility of making the decision on what, if anything, of the Marotta subdivision proposal should be approved.

Surely the Ontario Land Tribunal is therefore the appropriate place for a final decision on every aspect of the Marotta proposal, including the Heritage Act permit applications to allow the subdivision that were filed much later by the Marotta group and only deemed complete by the town recently.

Council is simply not, in my view, in a position to usurp the role of the tribunal here and make informed decisions on Heritage Act permits integral to the outcome of next spring’s tribunal hearing based on an hour and a half of submissions on April 24 from the Marotta companies, SORE and the town’s advisers.

Town heritage planner Denise Horne’s recent report recommended denying almost all of Marotta’s Heritage Act permit applications for the Rand subdivision.

The fact that Horne’s report is some 850 pages long illustrates my point.

Who on council (or the municipal heritage committee) will be able to wade through that 850 page report and make an informed decision about all of the facts and expert opinions presented therein?

Developer Benny Marotta has chosen to make the tribunal the decision-maker on whether his subdivision proposal proceeds or not.

On April 24, council should simply deny all of the Heritage Act permits requested by the Marotta companies. That will then be appealed up to the tribunal and joined with the Planning Act applications already there at Mr. Marotta’s request.

The tribunal can then make an informed decision on all aspects of this proposal, including the Heritage Act permits, based on a fulsome examination of expert evidence tested by cross-examination.

Judy McLeod is a spokesperson for Save Our Rand Estate (SORE).