Land expropriated in 2005 to create property parcel for Toyota
By Mark
Schadenberg
The
vindication has finally arrived against a vindictive property owner.
The City
of Woodstock, Blandford-Blenheim Township, the County of Oxford and
the Province of Ontario were deemed to be correct in their actions,
procedures and timelines to expropriate land from the owner of the
former Blandford Square Mall.
In the
waning months of 2004 and early moments of 2005, a land assembly was
quiet taking place to accumulate enough property for Toyota to build
its mega-manufacturing facility in Woodstock. It was an ideal
location naturally as it was along the 401 and less than 25 minutes
from the car company's Cambridge Canada headquarters.
Whether
you were someone who owned a house, or a hobby farm, or a derelict
mall, you were offered a calculated market value to sell your land.
I'm not going to comment on dollar figures and whether they were high
enough as some folks were required to move away from their 'dream
countryside home'. You had zero choice – no opportunity to say you
were going to chain yourself to your front porch and stay. It was
billed as what was best for the local economy today and tomorrow.
Toyota
acquired its acreage, but the mall owners felt they were disregarded
in the process and further disappointed with the total compensation
structure. The legal process, thereby began.
Read the
link below by accountable accomplished S-R reporter Heather Rivers,
which discussed the hopeful conclusion to this 9-year wrangling. I
say 'hopeful' as there is still an appeal period of 90 days,
according to the Rivers writings.
If you
have followed the story since its inception, you would be confident
that the local administration would eventually win. In the 2011 Sentinel writings (link) below, then-and-now Oxford warden Don McKay, who
represents East-Zorra Tavistock as mayor, said as much.
"It'll
be a relief when it's over, but it doesn't feel like something
hanging over our heads," McKay said, back in 2011. "It could be tomorrow
or it could be five years before it's over."
Naturally,
it's obvious to state that the mall turf was integral for Toyota as
its 35 hectares were at the important corner of Highway 2 (Dundas
Street) and County Road 4 (Innerkip Road). The total Toyota tundra is
about 400 hectares or about 1,000 acres.
The S-R
reports that the Blandford mall owners (Joe Chetti represented the
Blandford Square Developments company, who at the time were sometimes
proposing a possible mall expansion.) were demanding $16.5 million,
but were offered less than one-quarter of that amount.
I'm not
sure how all the facts line up in this parade of claims made by the
mall owner, but the County has often replied (I believe) that the
mall was in arrears for municipal taxes.
Consumers
know that the Blandford Mall was a lame duck as its tenants were
simultaneously flying to Norwich Avenue in Woodstock and the new box
mall – Wal-Mart, Reitmans, Body Graphics and The Source (Radio
Shack). It was the law of the wild – economics – as only the
strong survive.
Good
Sentinel-Review reporting discovered that the mall was sold in 2002
for about $1.35 million (Land registry report), so a quick math
calculation would indicate the Chetti brigade was well compensated.
The only
favourable point maybe for the Blandford Square Mall's position would
have been an attempt by any appraiser to calculate how much 'market
value' would be attached for the 35 (most pivotal) hectares. Is the
sky the limit?
A 2007
court ruling – as noted below in a link – described one court's
definition of 'land value' as follows:
()()()()()()()()
Sections
13 and 14 of the Expropriations Act provide that
the appropriate expropriation price is based upon the amount that a
willing buyer would pay to a willing seller in the open market, but
without taking account of the impact of the development proposed for
the lands on that value.
-
The appellants say that the expropriation price is less than the fair
market value of the lands and therefore contravenes ss. 106(1) and
(2)(c) of the Municipal Act. These sections read as
follows:
106.
(1) Despite any Act, a municipality shall not assist directly or
indirectly any manufacturing business or other industrial or
commercial enterprise through the granting of bonuses for that
purpose.
()()()()()()()()
Expropriation
for the 'highest and best use' of commercially-zoned land has
occurred previously in Woodstock. I remember when the Commerce Way
Park project was developed by the City between Parkinson Road and the
401 in the City's southeast corner. I vividly recall two farmers
names too – Virtue and Bakker. Both families were compensated and
Woodstock took ownership and that land now is the home to Sysco,
Canada Stampings, Miller Zell, AGCO Corporation, Ancra, Day &
Ross, Canada Post, Scholastic Books, a Leon's furniture warehouse and
. . .
My
conclusion is this: One land owner spent a lot of money on lawyers
and court proceedings when they should have been pleased to pocket
the fair amount they had received.
The top
administration official for Oxford is happy at the news, as was
reported in the S-R:
"We
are very pleased," said Oxford CAO Peter Crockett. "The
decision without question confirms the county acted in the public
interest to achieve significant economic benefit to both the county
and the province."
S-R Link of May 2:
S-R Story of August,
2011
S-R Story of September,
2008
Interesting Case Law
proceeding:
2006 Story (Not from
Sentinel-Review):
Related Woodstock
Industrial Link:
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales
Representative
Senior
Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757
Dundas St, Woodstock
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519)
537-1553, cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
Facebook:
Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
Discussion
. . . Direction . . . Determination . . . Destination
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