Calgary condo complex on the hook for road repairs after litigation with developer – Calgary | 24CA News
A apartment complicated within the metropolis’s southeast is dealing with important prices for upgrades and repairs to a privately-owned entry street, and the apartment board hopes the City of Calgary can step in and expropriate.
At challenge is an entry street south of 130 Avenue S.E., and who’s accountable to take care of it.
The South Pointe Condos have been one of many first developments within the space 20 years in the past and the apartment’s developer acquired the land from Shepard Development Corporation, which concerned an settlement for the apartment complicated to imagine accountability for the upkeep of the entry street.
Since then, the purchasing complicated across the entry street has grown and different agreements have been signed between Shepard and the varied companies, however the apartment board stated none included value sharing for sustaining the street.
“We are less than five per cent of the actual traffic that actually uses that road,” South Pointe Condos president Barbara Miller informed Global News.
Shepard Development Corporation stated the condominium didn’t perform any upkeep or repairs on the entry street between 2003 and 2019.
According to Miller, the battle got here to a head after Shepard Development Corporation accomplished repairs on the street in 2019, and despatched the apartment board an bill for roughly $67,000, which represents the repairs in addition to the dearth of upkeep over the earlier 17 years.
“We were just told that our contract says that we’re responsible,” Miller stated. “We continued to kick back, in turn, Shepard started litigation against us and we fought it.”
Earlier this month, a choose dominated in favour of Shepard and ordered South Pointe to pay $25,000 in damages.
Miller stated 72 hours after the choose’s ruling, Shepard despatched the apartment board a letter outlining its expectations for upkeep and restore obligations on the street.
“We will now have to pay for all the road maintenance, the cleaning, snow removal, and insurance,” Miller stated. “They are also doing a big study on (the road) now because of the amount of traffic and truck traffic that is going in there. The roads aren’t meeting the capabilities to have that volume.”
Miller stated the full value anticipated for the apartment complicated is greater than $500,000.
The letter additionally served the apartment 15 days’ discover to clear the gravel from the street or face a cost of $7,000 for the service.
Shepard declined an interview with Global News, and as a substitute highlighted the choose’s ruling, and confirmed it despatched a letter to the apartment to verify the “maintenance and repair obligations are met moving forward.”
“I trust our position respecting this matter is clear,” Shepard Development Corporation’s common counsel Shawn Belecki stated to Global News in an electronic mail.
According to Miller, the prices to the apartment residents can be “significant,” including that nearly half of the residents are seniors.
“Many of them won’t be able to afford a $30,000 or $40,000 special assessment to fix a road that is 90 per cent used by the rest of the city and not by us,” Miller stated.
Miller has since reached out to the realm councillor, within the hopes the City of Calgary can expropriate the street to defend the residents from the incoming prices.
However, Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer defined the state of affairs is complicated, and is sure by the 20-year-old settlement.
“I would imagine it’s going to be a longer process and take some time to unwind,” Spencer stated. “There may not be a path forward that gets them off the hook of the financial obligations related to this.”
Spencer stated the state of affairs is the fallout of a choice by the apartment’s developer to “keep costs low” on the apartment models put the prices related to sustaining the street in perpetuity as a substitute of paying for it upfront in the price of the land.
In the letter to the apartment board, Shepard stated it could proceed finishing up snow elimination duties on the street with a suggestion of “attractive pricing” for the apartment complicated.
Miller stated the hope is a decision might be discovered quickly earlier than the prices start so as to add up for South Pointe’s residents.
“Time is of the essence,” Miller stated. “If Shepard follows through with everything they’re saying, they could almost bankrupt our complex.”
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
