NOTL residents speak out on council's Parliament Oak decision

Summer has arrived, which means Queen Street is busy with tourists paying a visit to the Old Town,

But you can still find Niagara-on-the-Lake residents who are willing to share their thoughts about a contentious development that could be officially approved Tuesday night.

On Monday morning, The Local approached a number of people to ask if they live in town and if they were willing to talk about a four-storey, 129-room hotel development at the former Parliament Oak school site and whether they believe it’s suitable for the neighbourhood.

Doug Williams lives on John Street and says he won’t be too affected by noise that others who live closer to the hotel site have expressed concerns about, but he believes he will be impacted.

“That’s not likely to affect us other than the traffic along King Street,” he said as he walked out of the post office Monday morning.

But what has been proposed and nearly approved in full by the local government is too large for the Old Town, he believes.

“I don’t think they need something of that scale in that area,” he said.

Trucks servicing the hotel “will be an issue as well,” he said, aggreeing with a concern raised by residents during a committee-of-the-whole meeting two weeks ago before councillors approved the project to move ahead with zoning and bylaw amendments through a 5-4 vote.

Younger people also have an opinion, such as 13-year-old Lev Prokipchuk-Steacie, who recently graduated from Royal Oak Community School, which operates out of the former NIagara-on-the-Lake Hospital building.

“There are other things that property could be used for,” said Prokipchuk-Steacie, offering a suggestion that his school could relocate to the Parliament Oak site and the former hospital be reconverted back to its original use.

“Then we would have a hospital in town,” he said, sharing an opinion that NOTL has enough accommodations for visitors. “I don’t feel there’s a need for another hotel. There’s already a bunch.”

Warren and Deborah Crosbie are locals who could be found walking their poodles Merlin and Gracey on Queen Street Monday morning.

They are also opposed to the large-scale hotel that is only one step away from becoming a reality.

“There are enough hotels here already,” said Deborah. “I feel bad for the homeowners that are surrounding it.”

Warren said he doesn't agree with the opinion of one councillor that the hotel would add charm and elegance to the Old Town.

“We don’t need more $400 and $500-a-night hotels,” said Warren, who feels a massive 129-room hotel is not appropriate for the neighbourhood.

“When you start putting these things in, you lose what this village actually is,” he said, referring to the Old Town as a quiet place for tourists who can walk and browse what it has to offer.

He also questions whether the demand is there, pointing to a large percentage of tourists who visit by coming and going the same day on buses.

“It’s not going to fit in with the community as it is. It’s going to be an eyesore,” he said.

Earlier this month, TripAdvisor published a list of what are considered the top 25 hotels in Canada, and four of them are in NOTL. They are Queen’s Landing, White Oaks, Harbour House, and the Pillar and Post.

Those places “all fit in with the community,” said Warren.

A pair of tourists also said they couldn’t see the hotel fitting in.

“Could you imagine it in five to 10 years?” asked David Hooley, from Elora, Ont., a place that he says is seeing its identity slowly changed by development.

His wife Brenda said their hometown “used to be really, really quiet,” but that is gradually becoming a part of the past, she said.

David said what they like about NOTL is that it’s “quaint and small.”

Two weeks ago, councillors approved recommendations related to the project, sending the upscale development to a stage of needing one more approval — the ratification of a bylaw at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

At the meeting earlier this month, David Riley, a planner from SGL Planning and Design representing Two Sisters and Benny Marotta, said the building’s footprint will be 25 per cent of the property and that the remaining 75 per cent will be landscaping.

On the topic of it sitting four storeys tall, Riley said the building will be “set in the middle” of the property, and have 26-metre side setbacks and a 45-metre setback in the rear.

“That distance is what makes the additional height compatible with surrounding low-rise residential,” he said.

Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa said at the June 11 meeting that it’s difficult to balance both sides of this issue, but ended up voting in support of the project.

“I think in the long term this would be beneficial to the community,” said Zalepa, also appreciative that the developer plans to preserve items deemed important by the municipal heritage committee. “I think this application provides the vehicle to do that.”

Kris Dube, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Niagara-on-the-Lake Local