The recent decision of the Ontario Municipal Board in West Hill Redevelopment Company Ltd. v. The Chair of the Management Board of the Cabinet (OMB File LC960247 -- June 5, 1998), involved the expropriation of two parcels of land totalling 25.08 hectares in the vicinity of the Rouge River Valley. The lands were acquired to constitute part of the Rouge Park in northeast Scarborough.

The Board applied Section 14(4)(b) of the Expropriations Act to screen out the scheme in its determination of the market value of the land expropriated. The scheme in this case was the recreation/open space concept formulated by the City of Scarborough and ultimately implemented as the Rouge Park by the Province. The Board concluded that the scheme had originated within the City of Scarborough Municipal Government and predated the Official Plan Amendment #721 which designated the area as a "natural environment area". This predated the announcement by the Province of the Rouge Park in 1990. If OPA #721 was screened out, the residential development of the claimant’s lands was, on the balance of probabilities, likely to occur in the manner advanced by the witnesses called in support of the claimant’s case.

A central issue was whether the exercise of community planning by the City of Scarborough could form part of the scheme or development within the meaning of Section 14(4)(b) of the Expropriations Act.

The OMB found there was a causal connection between OPA #721 and the Rouge Park. It found that the planning process became distorted in 1987 in anticipation of acquisition. The Board accepted the claimant’s evidence that if the scheme, including the planning by the City of Scarborough, was screened out that on the balance of probabilities, residential development would have occurred. The Board concluded that OPA #721 was adopted as the initial part of the development or scheme which ultimately became known as the Rouge Park. It also concluded that there was a clear causal connection between the adoption of OPA #721 and the acquisition of the claimant’s lands.

Having accepted the claimant’s position with respect to the screening out process, the Board accepted appraisal evidence of Robert Robson that the two parcels had a total market value of $5,365,000.00.

This decision is significant in that the Ontario Municipal Board found that there was what amounted to a partnership between the City of Scarborough and the Province of Ontario to create the Rouge Park. The OMB showed that it was prepared to spread a wide net when it came to screening out the impact of the scheme or development.

This article appears in the OEA FALL 1998 NEWSLETTER