Kayla Jonas Galvin

The applicant appealed the City of Niagara Falls' failure to make a decision on applications for an Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment to permit a 10-storey mixed-use building.

The subject property is located adjacent to the Battlefield Museum, a recognized heritage site.

The Tribunal found that the proposed development's height, mass, and scale would overwhelm the adjacent heritage property and did not conform with the City's Official Plan policies regarding compatibility and transition.

The Tribunal preferred the evidence of the City's planners and heritage experts, concluding the proposal was an overbuild that did not represent good planning.

The appeals were dismissed.

The appellants appealed a municipal by-law designating their property as having cultural heritage value under the Ontario Heritage Act.

The Tribunal evaluated whether the property, a mid-19th century vernacular wood frame house, met the prescribed criteria under O. Reg. 9/06.

The Tribunal found the property met three criteria: it is a rare and representative example of a Gothic Revival Ontario Cottage, it displays a high degree of artistic merit, and it has contextual value due to its historical links to the area's agricultural roots.

The appeal was allowed in part only to amend the by-law to reflect these specific findings, and otherwise dismissed.

The appellants appealed the Town of Newmarket's passing of a by-law designating a property as being of cultural heritage value under the Ontario Heritage Act.

The parties reached a settlement and made a joint submission to amend the by-law to explicitly list certain elements of the property that are not heritage attributes.

The Tribunal accepted the expert heritage evidence supporting the settlement, allowed the appeal in part, and ordered the by-law amended accordingly.