After more than two years of red tape, the town of Baie d’Urfé is pushing forward with plans to clear the site of the old Linguini restaurant.
The popular Italian eatery burned down in November 2016. Police launched an arson investigation but concluded last year that the fire wasn’t criminal.
Town officials told Global News that they ended up threatening to take the owner to court in order to clear the site. They struck a deal to spend $14,000 to have a contractor clear the site, and then have the owner reimburse the town.
“I think we’ll all agree that this is an eyesore for the city,” said Nicolas Bouchard, the town’s manager. “It’s on the busiest highway, and it surely doesn’t show what we want to show of Baie d’Urfé.”
The town fielded complaints from many sectors of its industrial park, Bouchard said. Delays in clearing the site started to frustrate some of the employees of the Kubota dealership across the street, for instance, who used to go to the restaurant for business lunches.
“It should have been done faster,” said Benoit Gosselin, a sales manager there. “It doesn’t look good.”
Bouchard said the delays were caused by a combination of the police investigation and dealing with the insurer.
The work is slated to begin Monday. A contractor is being paid $14,000 by the town to clear the site, and the proprietor has agreed to reimburse the town for that amount, according to Baie d’Urfé officials. Co-owner Raffaele de Marco declined to comment on the matter.
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