An estimated 500 people protested a four-storey hotel in NOTL, including allegedly insulting the councillors.
Protesters against the Parliament Oak development gathered outside NOTL's town hall, but at the meeting inside, there was no discussion of the project, which has been approved.
www.notllocal.com
The protest seems to have been about more than the hotel, there is a link, in some minds, between a majority of Council and 'rubber stamping' multiple developments.
I suspect that isn't a fair assessment; but I've only followed a couple of the sites, and haven't deep dived them or their approval processes.
That said, I think there is a reasonable basis for people to protest in some fashion if they don't like the nature of the changes being approved by Council. The 4-storey proposal is on a residential street and is out of scale with its neighbours. I'm not intrinsically opposed to it, but I get why some would be......
What is unacceptable/ridiculous here is the conduct of the protesters which was anti-democratic intimidation; and the additional fact most of these people didn't bother actually deputing to Council that night, or any other.
If you abdicate any legitimate role in the process, you don't get to behave like a tantrum-throwing toddler with somewhat more profane vocabulary afterwards.
*****
Only one councillor responded to the media for the piece.......he said something that was only kinda/sorta true......other than his fair critique of the conduct of the protestors:
While that is technically correct; there is nothing I'm aware of that prevents the City from launching a new City-initiated amendment to down zone the property. To be clear, I'm not suggesting they should do this, nor that it wouldn't be appealed to the OLT immediately and probably over ruled ( 99% chance); but just as a technicality, the City does have options. It could also expropriate the land, and use it for public purposes, a park and then maybe affordable housing....
I mean with a 3-storey height limit, of course......... I wonder how that would go over
