The demolition and redevelopment of Shaw Festival’s century old Royal George Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario has been in the works for quite some time. But a legal challenge is questioning the project’s approval process.
It’s a venue that Western New York and Southern Ontario theater fans have flocked to for decades. The Royal George Theatre closed its doors to the public just last month, as it readied for a demolition and rebuild thanks to $35 million in provincial funds.
“While there has been extensive consultation about this project, it's been, at least in our client's view, fragmented,” said Eric Gillespie, the attorney representing a Niagara contractor who requested the judicial review.
While the Royal George Theatre does not have a heritage designation itself, it is located in a designated heritage district.
“It would be logical to say, because they're all in a thing called a heritage conservation district, that you might want to look at the district, not just at one little piece and then another little piece,” he said about his core argument.
Niagara-on-the-Lake prides itself on historic architecture, something that drives tourism. Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa said the Royal George redevelopment went through multiple layers of review and approval.
“Several meetings with what's called the Municipal Heritage Committee, which is a town based committee of residents and members of council that review all applications that would make changes inside the heritage district, which of course, this property was," Zalepa told BTPM NPR. "So this application went through a full review, through that committee, and also through extensive heritage impact analysis by professional planners.”
An Ontario court has a stay on demolition activity for the theater and box office until a ruling is issued near the end of February. Shaw Festival maintains they followed all proper procedures to get approvals for the wrecking ball.
But, Gillespie points out demolition was carried out on two Shaw-owned historic homes behind the theater after legal documents were filed.
“The matter is before the court. The court has the jurisdiction. The court has the authority," Gillespie said. "Notwithstanding that, Shaw Festival knew that this was going to go to court on an urgent basis, Shaw Festival went ahead and started demolition. And in our experience, that's very unusual.”
Zalepa said Shaw had the permits needed for the homes on Victoria Street, and has concerns about delays.
“This is an important asset for our town," the lord mayor said. "Not only for the merchants and the businesses on Queen Street, which would be significantly impacted by any major delay on the theater reopening, but there could also be risk to the project in general.”
Another aspect of the judicial review requested by Centurion Building Corporation is the lack of parking included in the approved project.
There is just a single parking space Shaw Festival will lease from the town for the new Royal George Theatre, which is expected to have 20% more seating than the current 315 seat facility.
"Parking will be looked at more holistically as to what's available in the entire district, because we know that when people visit town, they'll park their car, and they may stay at a hotel, so they'll park their car there and and then they'll walk to the theater," said Zalepa. "We're very comfortable knowing that the amount of parking available in the entire district is what is being used to manage the parking situation."
The sides return to court February 26.
