River Run residents in search of compensation as Inexperienced Line put in limbo

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In the end, being compelled from their properties might have been for nothing for the 20-plus households that used to reside within the River Run townhomes.

On the finish of Could, the owners have been compelled to vacate the 23-unit property, which lies on the northern tip of Calgary’s downtown, subsequent to the shuttered Eau Claire Market and south of Prince’s Island Park. The town had expropriated the riverfront townhouses, with plans to bulldoze the properties to make approach for a future Inexperienced Line station.

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However metropolis council’s resolution Wednesday to wind down work on the Inexperienced Line and discover methods to switch administration to the province means the LRT challenge is as soon as once more in limbo, and expropriation of the River Run complicated might have been pointless.

Patrick Lindsay, a pacesetter for the residents’ ongoing feud with the town — which is now stretching into its sixth yr — stated Wednesday’s final result wasn’t essentially a shock, however added much more “salt within the wound” of dropping his former residence.

“It’s one factor to have your house taken away from you when it’s for public profit,” he stated. “However we’re six years into this and we nonetheless don’t know what’s going to be on our property, so it does make it worse.”

After 5 years of unsuccessful negotiations, the town acquired the River Run property earlier this yr by means of the provincial Expropriation Act. Every unit proprietor (aside from three who settled with the town independently) obtained a buyout starting from $800,000 to $900,000, based mostly on an unbiased appraisal.

The town’s Inexperienced Line web site states the challenge workforce took possession of the complicated on June 1. The workforce “instantly secured the buildings” whereas the town chosen a contractor — Dakota Reclamators Ltd. — to finish the demolition work.

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The demolition course of for each River Run and the Eau Claire Market is anticipated to be full by June 2025, in keeping with the Inexperienced Line web site.

“Hazardous materials abatement would be the first stage of labor in each buildings, adopted by inside stripping of architectural finishes and structural demolition,” the web site said. “As soon as the buildings are down and all supplies are hauled off web site, backfilling and compacting will put together the positioning for eventual station development.”

Whereas the destiny of the Inexperienced Line might quickly be within the arms of the Alberta authorities, the province hasn’t stated if it could take into account constructing a station at Eau Claire if the challenge strikes forward. Current feedback from Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen have instructed the UCP is extra eager about seeing the LRT lengthen farther south to serve extra riders and join with the prevailing Crimson and Blue traces alongside Seventh Avenue, which is 5 blocks south of Eau Claire.

“We look ahead to seeing a brand new alignment from the unbiased third celebration, separate from the Metropolis of Calgary, earlier than figuring out the subsequent steps,” Dreeshen stated.

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No matter which order of presidency has authority over the Inexperienced Line, Lindsay blames the town for mismanaging the multibillion-dollar challenge.

“We adopted this very intently, contemplating how a lot it impacts us and the actual fact it’s taken our home,” he stated. “We’ve seen this council vote thrice in favour of this challenge with out ever producing a reputable enterprise case or cost-benefit evaluation. Various us by no means believed there was something associated to the practice that may go on our property.”

Joel Gaucher, one other former River Run resident who now rents an condo within the Beltline, agreed that a few of the owners doubted their property was really wanted for the Inexperienced Line.

The River Run townhomes are technically two blocks from Second Avenue and Second Avenue S.W., the place a terminus station was to be constructed underground. Nonetheless, challenge engineers instructed acquisition of the one-acre property was vital to put down the station’s “tail tracks” that may enable trains to show round.

“When this course of was initiated, the Inexperienced Line was speculated to be taking place Second Avenue and over the river, so we thought, ‘OK, perhaps we’re protected,’ ” Gaucher stated.

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“Once we discovered the final station was going to be practically two blocks away from us, we thought, ‘perhaps we’re protected now.’ However there was no communication from the town.”

Relatively than specializing in whether or not the Inexperienced Line might be constructed, Gaucher and Lindsay stated the households are extra preoccupied with their try and obtain compensation from the town for his or her authorized charges.

Final summer season, after formally objecting to the expropriation course of, the owners commissioned a provincial inquiry officer to research “whether or not the supposed expropriation is honest, sound and fairly vital within the achievement of the targets of the expropriating authority.”

The inquiry officer’s last report criticized the town’s communication with River Run residents all through the land acquisition course of and dominated that the municipality “should pay the objecting landowners’ affordable prices in reference to this inquiry.”

However owners are nonetheless combating to be reimbursed, which, in keeping with Gaucher, amounted to roughly $315,000.

The town objected to that quantity, Lindsay stated, which meant the owners needed to enchantment to the inquiry officer to find out how a lot the town owes.

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“We count on that order quickly,” he stated.

In a earlier assertion, the town instructed Postmedia that expropriation is rarely the municipality’s most popular technique of land acquisition, and is barely used as a final resort.

“The Metropolis of Calgary has supplied proposed funds to the River Run unit homeowners in accordance with the Expropriation Act (Alberta), that are based mostly on unbiased value determinations, though the act comprises a mechanism for homeowners to make claims for added compensation,” the town said.

“As these problems with compensation stay excellent, it’s not applicable to remark additional on these points at the moment.”

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