New court application adds to town’s legal battle for Randwood
Niagara-on-the-Lake’s list of legal battles has just grown by one.
Solmar Development Corp. and Two Sisters Vineyards have filed an application to quash council’s Aug. 13 decision to designate under the Heritage Act the four properties known as the Rand Estate — 144 John St., 176 John
St. E., 200 John St. E. and 588 Charlotte St. — claiming illegal process.
This is No. 5 on the list of ongoing legal proceedings between the two parties.
Lord Mayor Betty Disero said she believes council followed the rules when it put forward its intention to designate and that this latest issue should be fairly straightforward.
“At this point I’m not worried about a major impact to the budget with respect to this particular issue,” said Disero.
Although speaking in regard to the collective legal proceedings, Disero said she hopes everybody will think two or three times before putting a challenge forward.
“It’s everybody’s money that’s being spent.”
Disero was unsure of how much has been spent on Randwood-related legal expenses so far, but she said the town’s legal counsel will be updating council on Feb. 11.
When council voted to seek additional legal representation for the Randwood proceedings in a special meeting held Dec. 12, it was Coun. Clare Cameron who suggested putting a cap on the added expense in an attempt to prevent the proceedings from draining council’s legal budget.
Ultimately, no official cap was added to the decision.
Cameron said in a recent phone interview that since then, council has been working through the budget process with staff and she feels they are in a better position with the budget now.
“My greater concern is that the town have the best legal representation that we can possibly have.”
Cameron said she thinks council ought to have a figure in mind when it comes to legal expenditures.
“I don’t think that we should get into a scenario where there’s no limit or no sense of a line in the sand … I mean the town does not have unlimited financial resources, right?”
Benny Marotta, owner of Solmar and Two Sisters, said he believes council did not follow proper procedure when it voted to designate his properties.
He alleged that council made a hasty decision as a political move to gain favour with voters leading up to the municipal election.
“You cannot use your political power to just do things where it can affect the use of taxpayers’ money and also to affect investors and businesses within the town,” he said.
Marotta said he still intends to designate 144 and 176 John St. E. once the site plan is approved, as it was stipulated in Official Plan Amendment No. 51 of the original 2011 development approvals.
Solmar and Two Sisters have also appealed the amount of time the town has taken to deal with its Randwood planning applications, they’ve appealed the heritage designation and they’ve appealed the town’s injunction to pause the development process.
Of the five active legal proceedings between the parties, the injunction to pause the development process is the only one initiated by the town.
The latest application will be heard in court on Thursday, Feb. 14.