City ordered to pay River Run townhome owners over $300K in legal expenses

Residents of a townhome complex in Eau Claire set to be torn down to make way for the Green Line say the way the city has handled the situation has been unfair, baffling and hurtful.

The City of Calgary has been ordered by a public officer to reimburse former residents of the River Run condos in Eau Claire over $310,000 to cover their expenses in their ongoing dispute with the city.

The ruling was based on an assessment of the total legal fees associated with the inquiry that was launched in July, 2023.

The City of Calgary expropriated the River Run townhomes in 2023 to accommodate their plans for the construction of the Green Line light rail project.

River Run property owners have been in a dispute with the city over what their properties were valued at, but before they can proceed with an appeal of the valuations, they were forced to appeal the payment of what constituted “reasonable costs” for legal services in the dispute.

River Run townhome owners said those costs were around $316,000, while the city offered around $150,000 if the residents forfeited their right to appeal.

One of the sources of contention was a reluctance of the city to produce records in a timely manner, forcing residents to spend more billable hours having their lawyers get access to them.

“The city’s conduct during the inquiry including its refusal to produce records it deemed unnecessary but which it was ultimately compelled to produce unnecessarily lengthened the proceeding, increasing the Owner’s costs,” the report said.

Patrick Lindsay, the spokesperson for the River Run owners, said that council didn’t communicate with them at all, sending them a notice to expropriate and then, on Sept. 1, 2023, he said, “They voted behind closed doors to go ahead with it.

“They should have engaged with us in some way,” he said. He said that Ward 7 Councillor Terry Wong, who represents them, has never communicated with them despite repeated efforts to contact him.

The ruling is the first part of what Lindsay described as a “two-part process”, whereby they can ask a tribunal to rule on the valuations they received for their properties.

In Lindsay’s case, he said he owned a four-bedroom, 2,500 square foot townhome facing Prince’s Island Park.

The city ultimately paid Lindsay $1.065 million for his place, which he says was later assessed by the city at $1.264 million.

He said that a comparably-sized place in the Princeton, a nearby condo building in Eau Claire, goes for around $2.3 million.

“It was a beautiful home, on one acre of land,” Lindsay said. “You can’t replace that for $1 million.”

The residents said they haven’t yet proceeded with the appeal of the valuations they were assigned because they couldn’t keep running up large legal bills until the city pays them.

In an April 9 letter to Councillor Wong, the residents asked when they could expect to be paid, the $310, 935. 04 the public officer ordered the city to reimburse them out of an original request for $316, 397.25.

Late Thursday afternoon, the city provided the following statement in response to a request for comment about when the $310,905.04 will be paid.

“Expropriation is never the city’s preferred method of acquisition, and the city always endeavors to negotiate mutually acceptable agreements with impacted property owners.

“The expropriation process and claims before the Land and Property Rights Tribunal are ongoing legal matters. Out of respect for the parties involved and the legal process, the city cannot make any further comment at this time.”