After a seven day hearing of necessity, Harold Goldkind, Q.C., a hearing officer under the Expropriations Act, recommended that the City of Toronto acquire all of the land of Verdiroc Holdings at the northeast corner of Bayview Avenue and Sheppard Avenue. The City of Toronto wished to expropriate only a strata fee taking from the southerly portion of the property for the Bayview station on the Sheppard subway line and an easement for a bus loop.

The hearing officer noted that after 25 meetings and over two years of negotiations, the parties had not been able to reach an agreement whereby the City would acquire the lands required for Toronto Transit Authority purposes and the developer would construct a multi-storey condominium building over the station. Under the circumstances, the hearing officer felt that the only appropriate resolution was for the City to expropriate the entire parcel and to enter into an agreement with a new development partner. If the City was allowed to expropriate only its limited requirements, the hearing officer felt that it would give it an unfair advantage in its negotiations with the owner.

This article appears in the OEA FALL 1998 NEWSLETTER