Attempt to speed up Randwood historic designation falls short
An attempt by a Niagara-on-the-Lake councillor to get the town to start paperwork to designate Randwood Estate under the Ontario Heritage Act failed Monday.
Coun. Betty Disero put forward a motion to council that the town state its intention to pass a bylaw to designate the four properties on John Street East and Charlotte Street that make up the historic 5.6-hectare property that is slated for development of a hotel and conference centre.
Two Sisters Resort Corp. wants to build a six-storey hotel with
145 rooms and has run into fierce opposition from a residents group — SORE (Save Our Randwood Estate). Maurizio Rogato, the planner for the developer, said in April that the process for a heritage designation has been started and an interior analysis of the existing buildings is underway.
The town’s municipal heritage committee met last week and recommended that the town apply for a third-party heritage designation for the Randwood properties. The committee also stated that it does not support a six-storey building on the site and advised that a heritage planner be hired by the town to deal with applications involving issues of this nature.
However, minutes from the heritage committee are not slated to come before council until the June meeting. Disero wanted council to suspend the rules Monday so the committee’s recommendations involving designation and hiring a heritage planner could be dealt with immediately.
“They’ve been dealing with this since 2017 and they are frustrated,” said Disero, referring to the heritage committee, “as are the residents that there’s been no designation.”
She said a 103-page staff report was prepared a year ago that highlights the significant features of the property.
“Mr. Rogato assured the (heritage) committee that the documentation was being reviewed with a sense of importance,” said Disero. “That was almost a year ago.”
Disero’s motion was not dealt with by council as she failed to get a two-thirds vote in favour of
suspending the rules in order to bring it forward. Four councillors voted in favour of allowing her motion, three were opposed and two had conflicts of interest.
“You do realize that you just lost 30 days,” Disero told council.
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. That time period has almost expired for the application by the Two Sisters Resort Corp. for the Randwood Estate.
The municipal heritage committee’s recommendations will come to councillors for discussion in June.