In a 24-page report released late Friday, Town heritage staff have recommended Benny Marotta be sent back to the drawing board on his latest proposal. The report can be read below.
As with former Town heritage planner Denise Horne and the Ontario Land Tribunal in its 2024 Decision, the report recognizes the Rand Estate as “cultural heritage landscape of exceptional significance” within not only NOTL but the province and indeed the country. The report calls Randwood “one of the most intact and significant early twentieth-century estate landscapes in Canada”.
With regard to the Marotta proposal, staff conclude that it would result in “substantial adverse effects to protected heritage attributes and the broader Rand Estate Cultural Heritage Landscape through demolition, relocation, removal of landscape features, wall alterations and significant tree loss”. All of which staff concluded have not been justified as required under the Provincial Policy Statement, Town guidelines and best practice. Staff therefore recommend that the Marotta companies be required, should they wish to proceed, with a proposal in which “development should be subordinate to the historic landscape”.
With regard to the highly contentious proposed subdivision street on the 200 John Street panhandle, which has already been rejected by Denise Horne in her report accepted by Council in April of 2023, by Council again in its December 15, 2023 resolution and by the OLT in its October, 2024 Decision, staff state that the Marotta companies should be required to come back with a proposed access “that demonstrates the least overall intervention within the historic estate rather than simply the option that best satisfies engineering or site planning objectives”.
Concerning the proposed 85 foot high hotel next to the Rand Manor House staff note that it will “not be physically subordinate to the heritage buildings”, contrary to best practice heritage guidelines. Our supporters will recall that this was an important principle when the 2011 Council narrowly approved the Romance Inn proposal; thus the intent at the time was that the Inn be no more than 3 stories. The Marotta proposal is nearly triple that height. Staff therefore recommend that “further justification of the hotel’s proposed height, footprint and overall scale is required”.
In summary, the proper understanding of the Town heritage staff report is that they have recommended the current proposal be rejected and told Mr. Marotta to come back with a proposal that is “heritage first”. This is entirely consistent with the Council resolution of December 15, 2023 which clearly told Mr. Marotta to use a “constraints-based” approach to any Rand proposal-in other words accept the constraints the estate imposes on you and work within them rather than pretending they don’t exist or are inconvenient so they can be ignored.
The new staff heritage report is also entirely consistent with the well-reasoned OLT Decision in October of 2024. As reported to Council by Town lawyer Nancy Smith on October 21, 2024, the Tribunal in its Decision confirmed:
- Heritage protection extends to the landscape, setting and inter-relationships of attributes, not simply the attributes themselves
- Attribute demolition is a last resort. The goal of heritage conservation is to “tell the story” by the very existence of the attribute. Preservation is the goal
- Ms. Horne’s conservation approach was practical and thorough. The Tribunal endorsed it and ordered that most of the character-defining elements will be preserved and rehabilitated, or relocated where warranted.
- No panhandle access. Solmar must find another access solution which may, in all likelihood, involve a shared access through 1444/176 John for both a potential future hotel and the subdivision.
- The remaining trees [that the Marotta companies did not clear cut in 2018] are part of the cultural heritage landscape to be conserved.
In conclusion, Mr. Marotta has now been told five times- by Denise Horne in 2023, by Council when it endorsed her report at a meeting attended by hundreds in April of 2023, by Council again in its December 15, 2023 resolution, definitively by the OLT in its October 2024 Decision and now again by Town heritage staff that he can’t simply do what he wants at the Rand Estate and that he must accept and work within the many constraints the estate imposes on him. Will he finally get the message or do we have to keep on doing this over and over again? We’re not optimistic.
A reminder that this new staff report will be considered at the Municipal Heritage Committee meeting this coming Wednesday July 8 at the Council Chambers. We expect the Committee won’t reach the Rand matter until close to 7 pm.
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