Council meeting gets raucous on Randwood Estates

“Completely disrespectful,” “absolutely rude” and “almost come to bullying” were some of the comments made about the behaviour of the SORE citizens group, Save Our Randwood Estate, at a Niagara-on-the-Lake town council meeting Monday.

More than 200 people, mainly members of SORE, packed the community centre and another 50 watched the meeting on a screen in the lobby. They jeered, shouted, laughed and clapped several times, targeting councillors, town staff and other delegates on unrelated topics.

They also gave councillors a standing ovation after approval was given to the municipal heritage committee’s recommendations for protection of the buildings and landscaping on the historic John Street property.

This was the second time this year a meeting was held at the community centre to deal with the development application for Randwood Estate. Two Sisters Resort Corp. wants to build a six-storey hotel complex with 145 rooms on the 5.6-hectare site.

SORE is opposed to several aspects of the proposal including the height, density and design of the hotel and wants to ensure the landscaping and existing buildings are designated by the town. A previous application for the property was approved in 2011 for a three-storey hotel, but it was never built.

The municipal heritage committee made several recommendations to council at its February meeting regarding protection of the property. They included requiring the applicant to seek a heritage permit, a detailed inventory of the interior contents of all buildings, a set of building elevations for new structures on how they will appear from various locations, and a peer review at the applicant’s expense of the heritage attributes prior to site plan approval.

At the March council meeting, a motion by Coun. Maria BauCoote was approved that a decision on the heritage committee’s recommendations be deferred for a month. The intention was to give the citizens group an opportunity to meet with the developer and discuss their concerns.

That meeting held Good Friday failed to bring the two sides any closer together and SORE objected to council’s one-month delay in approving the heritage committee’s recommendations. Developers can go to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, formerly the Ontario Municipal Board, if their applications are not dealt with by a municipality within 150 days.

Coun. Betty Disero said the town is now “at day 120” and she wants confirmation from Two Sisters that the company will not go to the appeals tribunal in 30 days if a decision on the application is still pending.

That was one of the motions made by Disero and passed by council Monday. She also wants the town to apply for historical designation of the property and its buildings, rather than rely on the developer to do it, and she requested a staff report on the condition of the site’s boxwood hedge.

Staff were requested by Disero to keep council informed if any applications come forward for demolition of buildings on the property. She was advised that a demolition permit for some of the accessory buildings has been withdrawn and there are no current applications.

Coun. Jamie King said he believes that “a third-party designation is absolutely necessary.” Both King and Coun. Terry

Flynn expressed concerns about the sensitivity of the developer to the heritage attributes of the property, in contrast to the previous applicant, Trisha Romance.

Bau-Coote was shouted down by the audience when she tried to explain why she had wanted SORE and Two Sisters to meet.

Similar behaviour was exhibited toward a delegate who spoke on an unrelated matter.

“This a very sensitive property,” she said. “As a council, we try our best to make good decisions.”

Earlier in the meeting, when a delegate was speaking about Bee Cities, Bau-Coote apologized to her for the behaviour of the audience.

In an interview after the meeting, Lord Mayor Pat Darte said the crowd was “completely disrespectful” and “it’s almost come to bullying.”

“Kudos to Coun. Bau-Coote for getting up and speaking.”

Darte said if he had tried to control the audience any more, the situation would have gotten worse.

“They need to show us a bit of respect,” he said. “We have been elected and need to be concerned about issues affecting the municipality as a whole.”

Going forward, Darte said he does not plan to hold any more meetings on the Randwood application at the community centre. The venue change from council chambers was done to accommodate the large number of people expected in attendance.

Before the application for the Randwood Estate comes to council for debate, there will be a public meeting and a staff report prepared. No dates have been set yet.