SORE updates its supporters and the community on two matters.
First, Benny Marotta’s companies have pulled the for sale signs on 144/176 John St (the site of the historic Rand house and gardens and half of the former Rand Estate). We had previously questioned whether the $19M price tag would garner any interest and whether this was even a bona fide attempt to sell those properties. It appears we now have our answer.
We await Mr. Marotta’s next move.
Second, the Conservation Review Board (CRB) has now scheduled a hearing for four days starting
Monday, July 19.
The hearing will address Benny Marotta’s objection to the Notices of Intent to Designate 200 John St and 588 Charlotte under the Heritage Act. Those Notices were issued by the Town in August of 2019 under the direction of the previous Council and were promptly appealed by the Marotta companies to the CRB. The CRB is an advisory body only-it will make recommendations on the merits of the Notices to Town Council, which Council is free to adopt or disregard prior to passing final heritage designation bylaws. Our supporters will recall that Benny Marotta has applied to build a high density subdivision on the back half of the iconic Rand Estate property.
The CRB hearing will be conducted by video conference due to the ongoing challenges presented by covid and will be open to the public to view. SORE will be a party to this hearing along with the Town. Further details will be provided closer to the start of the hearing.
As always, we thank you for your continued support and encouragement.