Old Kildonan residents could face massive road improvement fees

WINNIPEG — Eleven households in Old Kildonan could have to pay enormous proposed fees related to the improvement of Templeton Avenue.

The payment notices started coming in September and now total between $76,000 and $361,000 depending on the property’s frontage.

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Cherry Karpyshin owns one of the affected residences which are located on the south side of Templeton between McPhillips Street and Pipeline Road.

“It makes no sense, it doesn’t even pass the test of common sense,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It makes no sense, it doesn't even pass the test of common sense," she said.

A new development with hundreds of homes is slated for land directly across Templeton from the 11 homes, including Karpyshin’s.

The proposed fees are related to paving and improving the avenue.

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A city bylaw allows the developer who paid for those improvements to get some of their costs back from property owners who will benefit from them.

That leaves the property owners on the south side of Templeton on the hook for $1.6 million, said Karpyshin.

“We knew the development was going in, that’s not news to us because they were zoning, we knew it was rezoned from agricultural to residential but never in our wildest dreams did we think we’d have to pay for it,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We knew the development was going in, that's not news to us because they were zoning, we knew it was rezoned from agricultural to residential but never in our wildest dreams did we think we'd have to pay for it," she said.

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Karpsyhin and her neighbours will also have to pay $24,000 each to be connected to new water and sewer lines.

If Karpyshin and her husband are forced to pay the fees, it will seriously impact their retirement, she said.

“We’re stressed, we have bad days for sleeping and headaches. I mean, we planned for our retirement. Garry worked until he was 71, I worked until I was 69. We don’t have company pensions,” she said.

Karpsyhin and a group of her neighbours will be at City Hall next week to appeal the fees.

City administration has looked at the case and is recommending the 11 residents don’t have to pay the proposed fees. However the final say rests with a civic committee that will meet next week.