The City of Winnipeg’s Riel Community Committee has filed a motion to uphold a recent decision not to demolish a St. Norbert home.
On Friday, the group held a special appeal hearing in which Winnipeg councillors Markus Chambers and Matt Allard listened to concerns about property at Lemay Avenue and La Grave Street.
Lawyer Kevin Toyne, spoke on behalf of Tochal Development Group, which owns the property.
He said he is disappointed with the committee’s decision, and said the city needs to be more receptive when it comes to development.
“It’s unfortunate that Winnipeggers have to retain a lawyer to get what they’re hoping to achieve from their local government,” he said.
Toyne said he hoped the committee would allow his client to go ahead with the demolition so they could more easily access another “landlocked” property that the group owns. The Lemay Forest.
Local groups are against the development because it had previously been used as a recreation area for residents.
But Toyne said the idea that it would always be that way, isn’t realistic.
“That’s a fantasy. That’s not what’s going to happen. This land is going to be developed. It’s not going to be forced to be a private park, at a private citizen’s expense,” he said.
While many of the speakers at Friday’s appeal hearing spoke to their broader concern about the Lemay Forest area, coun. Allard said Friday’s decision had to take a much more limited scope into consideration.
“Today was very much about ‘Did the director make the right decision in terms of A, B, or C?’ Councillor Chambers and I both agreed, for different reasons, that the director made the right decision in not allowing the demolition, without having plans attached,” he said.
This does not mark the end of the road for proposed development in the Lemay Forest.
Representatives from Tochal said they intent to keep the area off limits to the public, and weigh next steps.
–with files from Global’s Drew Stremick
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