By Pepper Parr
November 28th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The people who live along West Haven in Tyendaga will troop over to the Crossroads Centre for a third public meeting put on by Meridian Brick this Thursday.
As part of Meridian’s “good neighbour” policy they will update the community on the status of the many studies they have had done – the residents will ask questions and their environmental adviser will ask tough questions of the Meridian staff who will be out in force.
The Mayor may or may not show up. Same goes for the ward Councillor Rick Craven – they just want this issue to go away.
The issue for the residents is the shale mining the brick maker wants to do in the third piece of land – referred to as the eastern cell or Cell 3.
Everyone knew how close the eatern quarry was going to be to the high end homes that were going to be built. Current owners claim the warning clause that was supposed to be registered on title doesn’t appear.
They fear serious depression in the value of their homes and refer to an appraisers report that finds property value losses between 8% to 40% in proximity to pits and quarries.
The brick manufacturer has gone through several corporate mergers. Brick has been manufactured in Aldershot sine the early 1900’s. The current manufacturing plant was built in 2000.
Meridian makes it very clear they are licensed to do what they do – the West Haven residents want to see limitations put on that license.
The issue for Meridian is keeping the plant operational. To do that they will have to de-forest an area with a reported 9000 trees. Meridian points out that they do have a license (first issued in 1972) to mine for Queenston shale – that is used to make very good brick.
The residents point out that the community that exists today didn’t exist in 1972. It wasn’t until the end of 1998 that a development Plan was approved in principle by the Region.
The battle lines have been drawn.
The development was first put forward by Jannock Limited, a Mississauga based developer.
They sold their interest to Brant Haven Homes who built the high end residences.
Brant Haven has an excellent reputation for building fine high end homes.
In a 24 page Region of Halton document there are two references to a quarry operation that was yards away from where the homes were to be build
“The owner and the Region acknowledge and agree that this agreement shall be registered on title to the lands. To that effect, the owner hereby consents to the registration of this agreement on the title to the lands.”
The West Haven residents claim that the agreement is not registered on the title they have.
On the very last page of the agreement there is a second paragraph labelled as a Warning clause with the following:
“The following warning clause shall be registered on title and included in all development agreements and Offers of Sale and Purchase or Lease of all lots:
“The purchaser/ tenants acknowledge the presence of a future extractive industrial land use to the west and that extraction may take place during the day time only.”
Those were the words on the Application to Register Notice of Agreement Pursuant to Section 71 of the Land Titles Act that was signed by Jannock and the Region.
When the development was sold to Brant Haven were they aware of the Warning Clause? They should have been – they are not likely to get involved in the dispute – unless the Region begins to look into the matter.
This isn’t the kind of thing the Region does on its own; someone will have to delegate at the Region and ask some questions and then a member of Regional Council would have to ask some questions. Every member of Burlington city council is a member of the Regional Councillor; half of their income comes from the Region
The residents close to the east quarry fear that the day the trees are cut down the value of their property could drop by as much as 40%
When Brant Haven began to sell the houses – did they advise the purchasers that there was a warning clause? Not the kind of thing some real estate agents mention.
It is up to the lawyer who closes the purchase of the property to research the title and ensure that there are no liens or conditions involved.
None of the people involved in the dispute say that they were made aware of the warning clause and it appears that the warning was never entered onto the title.
Who is responsible for the oversight? Was it deliberate?
Where were the lawyers who did the closing for the buyers?
This all happened more than 18 years ago and no one remembers – or doesn’t want to remember.
It wouldn’t be difficult to look at the title document and get the name of the lawyer who did the closing paper work and collected a fee. Their name would be on the file.
Could be embarrassing for a number of Burlington based lawyers.
Apparently all of them missed it. And now their clients are going to miss those trees.
It would seem some of the residents may have a nice “Carrot or Stick,” depending on how one looks at the situation to motivate their legal beagles.
Properly motivated lawyers could perhaps even get a result that is tenable for the residents. No?