The Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) has this week issued a final order dismissing the Marotta/Solmar applications for a high density subdivision on the back half of the Rand Estate.
As our supporters will recall, Mr. Marotta’s company Solmar applied for permission to build almost 200 houses on the historic Rand Estate. The subdivision would have been accessed through a narrow panhandle at 200 John St immediately beside the heritage-protected Rand house. Solmar appealed directly to the OLT to approve its proposed subdivision, bypassing the Town.
After a lengthy hearing last summer, the OLT sent Solmar back to the drawing board, finding numerous problems with its proposed subdivision and concluding that it did not represent good planning. The OLT, standing in the shoes of Town Council as the decision-maker, accepted the evidence of the Town and SORE that the Rand Estate contains numerous cultural heritage attributes that the Marotta subdivision did not properly take into account and that it ordered protected/rehabilitated. The Tribunal also concluded that the proposed access using the 200 John St panhandle was both unsafe from a traffic perspective and unfeasible due to numerous heritage and boundary tree impacts.
As usual, Mr. Marotta appealed the OLT decision, both to the OLT Chair and to the courts. The OLT Chair dismissed the Solmar appeal on January 28 and gave Solmar two months to decide whether it was prepared to bring back a subdivision conforming to its decision. On April 11, Solmar advised that it was not prepared to do so. Accordingly, the OLT issued its final order dismissing the applications.
Outstanding still is the court challenge of the OLT decision initiated by Mr. Marotta’s company. That application is still currently proceeding through the court process and no hearing date has yet been set. The court application for judicial review essentially raises the same arguments already rejected by the OLT panel and subsequently the Chair. We are fully confident it is going nowhere and will not be surprised to see it withdrawn by Mr. Marotta, but only after forcing additional expense on both the Town and SORE.
Where we go from here is anyone’s guess. The OLT has provided crystal clear guidance on what is approvable by way of residential development on the back half of the Rand Estate. And has left it up to Mr. Marotta to figure out how to access that development in some way other than the 200 John St panhandle. Both the Town and SORE presented residential development concepts to the OLT that respect the various Rand constraints the Tribunal has stated must be preserved/maintained/rehabilitated. The work has essentially already been done for Mr. Marotta but he has elected to turn his back.
At every turn over the last seven years, Mr. Marotta has fought any attempt to impose constraints on what he wants to do with the Rand Estate. He has used the courts and the tribunals repeatedly in an attempt to get his way. He has lost at every turn. Instead of finally choosing to work with the Town and SORE, he has elected to walk away. We’ll be here waiting if he changes his mind and in the interim, our efforts to ensure the Rand Estate and its many cultural heritage attributes are respected and maintained will not diminish.