There was an initial court appearance on Thursday (Feb. 14) in St Catharines on the court challenge by the Marotta group of the Town’s decision last August to designate the four Rand Estate properties under the Heritage Act.
SORE’s counsel appeared at that proceeding and advised the Court of SORE’s intention to seek permission to participate in the court challenge. SORE has concluded it needs to participate in order to share our unique perspective (and our heritage experts) and to support the Town in its defence of the process and the decision to designate. The matter was put over to early April and will be further spoken to at that time. We do not anticipate an actual hearing until late June.
It is clear that the Marotta group’s developing strategy is to try to bury the Town in legal proceedings. We are confident our new Council has the resolve not to be bullied by this developer, just like Caledon fought back and won a few years ago. Visit the Benny Marotta media archive on our website for more information.