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The owners of 20 townhouses that are set to be expropriated for the Green Line LRT project are formally objecting to the process, saying the city has been unclear about a buyout process and of its intentions with their land.
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The River Run Townhomes sit just north of the Eau Claire Market, on the banks of the Bow River. The 23 townhouses, built in the mid-1990s, also lie in the future path of the Green Line.
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River Run resident Patrick Lindsay is one of the affected property owners. He said the townhome complex is unlike anything else in the city, being right in the downtown, but also on the river, and fairly low-density.
“They’re four-floor townhomes with outdoor patios, mature trees, and a very nice large courtyard,” he said. ”So, they’re unique. There is not another property like this downtown, waterfront adjacent.”
Lindsay said residents first got the sense in 2019 that the city might want to take their property. But he says there was nothing official about expropriation until February of this year.
He said the homeowners retained a lawyer, but no offers were made to purchase the homes.
“For years they told us, ‘We will destroy your property, but we have no intention to expropriate,’ which left us completely uncertain about what was going to happen,” said Lindsay.
The city has a different explanation of how that played out. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Green Line project said a negotiated agreement remains the goal, instead of expropriation.
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“Details of the City’s proposal were confirmed with the legal counsel representing many of the River Run property owners in Fall 2020,” read a statement. “Communication has continued since then to ensure that any owner who wished to sell their unit on a voluntary basis had that opportunity. One sale has been completed, and two others remain in active negotiation.”
The city says it formally notified residents of its expropriation plans in February of this year, and filed the necessary documents to begin the process in May.
The remaining 20 homeowners have now officially objected to the expropriation, which is their only real avenue of appeal under the province’s Expropriation Act.
Under the act, the province must appoint an inquiry officer, who will “inquire into whether the intended expropriation is fair, sound and reasonably necessary in the achievement of the objectives of the expropriating authority.”
The inquiry officer will deliver a report with their opinion on the merits of the expropriation to the city and the homeowners, but their findings are not binding.
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The inquiry officer must be appointed within 15 days of the objection being made, and must deliver a report within 30 days of their appointment.
Joel Gaucher is another resident objecting to the expropriation. He said he fell in love with the townhomes after temporarily staying with a friend who lived there. He ended up buying one of the townhomes and moving to Calgary in 2006.
Gaucher said the homeowners really want answers about what exactly the city plans to do with their properties, since the station is about two blocks away to the south.
Like Lindsay, he noted there’s no similar properties anywhere else in Calgary, so they have major question about how an accurate valuation can be made.
He said since 2019, it has no longer felt like his home, and it has affected his day-to-day life as a result.
“We’ve been in limbo with our long term homes for four years, and it makes it really difficult in your life, you know, like if you’re deciding whether to do renovations,” said Gaucher.
In its statement, the city said it is encouraging homeowners to “reach out and begin negotiations,” which it says can still be completed instead of the expropriation process.
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The city said expropriation remains its option of last resort and that more than 90 per cent of land requirements for the southeast portion of the Green Line have been negotiated.
“We understand that this decision impacts individual Calgarian’s residential properties and remain committed throughout this next stage to ensuring that they receive fair and reasonable compensation,” read the statement.
Lindsay said he’s hoping the city can find another way.
“I really don’t want my home destroyed and I’m objecting in hopes that they won’t destroy my home,” he said. “I think for others, they know the city has the power to take our property, and we likely have no ability to stop it at all. But at least if we object we might learn a little bit more about what it means for our property.”
brthomas@postmedia.comTwitter: @brodie_thomas
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