Judge’s order could expand Georgian Beach road lawsuit
Posted by Wendy King on 04/27/2010
By Chris Fell, Meaford Express -
The Municipality of Meaford’s ongoing lawsuit against Georgian Beach Road landowners now has the potential to become a much larger case.
A court decision handed down on Monday, April 12 orders the municipality to include the owners or companies with an interest in properties between Lots 22, 23 and 24, Concession 6 in the legal battle.
Justice J. Daley of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice also ordered the Municipality of Meaford to include the Attorney General for the Province of Ontario in the lawsuit.
The order effectively means that the Municipality of Meaford could possibly end up suing dozens of its own ratepayers, companies and financial institutions that may hold mortgages on the properties in that area and companies like Union Gas that may have an easement over those properties.
Ratepayers facing off with the municipality over this matter hailed the judge’s ruling as a major victory. Meaford CAO Frank Miele downplayed the impact of the ruling and said that it will cause a time delay in the case, but is unlikely to change the fundamental issues of the legal action.
“This is a massive decision. This now affects everybody in that area. If they want to put a road through there, it’s going to go right through people’s homes,” said Geoff Grist, in an interview the day after the decision was issued. “This will cost (the municipality) an additional million dollars,” said Grist, who had been a defendant in the case since the beginning.
In an interview with The Express on Friday morning, CAO Miele said the ruling would not alter the case fundamentally.
“The judge surprised everybody. We did not anticipate this at all, but the judge made a ruling,” said Miele. “The judge said he wants all the people on these roads to be involved – if they want to be,” he said.
Miele said the municipality must now contact property owners in the area that aren’t currently involved in the legal action and ask if they would like to be included in the case.
“It’s up to us to write a letter and explain the ruling and ask them if they’re interested. It’s going to take a couple months to do that. I would say this is a temporary setback in timing, but not in strategy. We’re going to be asking (other property owners) if they wish to participate. Obviously, most people would say no,” said Miele.
A few years ago the Municipality of Meaford launched a lawsuit against Grist and several other property owners in the Georgian Beach area. The municipality claims the property owners in question took over and blocked public land when they erected fences and other barriers to keep people off their property. Those property owners insist they have title deeds that show they own property right to the waterfront and they are within their rights to put up privacy barriers.
At the heart of the dispute is an 1854 bylaw that the municipality says is proof that a public road once existed along the beach and that the road was never closed. A road once did exist in the area and was used by vehicles until it was washed out in a storm during the high water period in the 1980s. Since that time a public footpath existed in the area…
www.simcoe.com
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Wendy King on 04/27/2010. Filed under
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