Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
City's land offer irks Masons
They suspect a double set of standards
WAYNE.GLOWACKI@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Enlarge Image
The city is expropriating some of the Masonic Memorial Temple's parking lot for the bus corridor project.
Masons at Confusion Corner say the City of Winnipeg has been less than rock-solid in its negotiations over land the city expropriated to build the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor.
In 2009, the city assumed possession of about 24,000 square feet of the parking lot behind the Masonic Memorial Temple at the southeast corner of Corydon Avenue and Osborne Street.
The strip of land was one of 11 parcels of property the city required to make room for a 3.6-kilometre busway that will run from Queen Elizabeth Way near The Forks to the corner of Jubilee Avenue and Pembina Highway.
The $137-million busway budget originally called for $12.7 million to spend on expropriations. But city councillors were informed earlier this month it will take $18.2 million to acquire all the desired land.
Expropriation deals already reached by the city include a $5.75-million agreement to compensate auto dealership Pembina Chrysler for the loss of part of its parking lot, and a $3.4-million compensation package for Donald Street's Midtown Car Wash, which also lost a strip of its parking lot.
The city has offered the Masonic Memorial Temple $523,000 for the loss of part of its own asphalt, secretary Brian Langtry said Monday.
The temple lost 91 of the its 200 parking spots in the expropriation, Langtry said, claiming it's now more difficult for his organization to rent out its hall.
The city may be applying one set of expropriation standards to private businesses and another to non-profit entities, he suggested.
"We got a cheque for $523,000 as an initial offer. They're supposed to sit down with us and discuss further. We have not heard anything further from them," Langtry said.
The city rejects Langtry's suggestion about two sets of standards. "That's going on in their minds. The negotiations are ongoing," city spokesman Ed Shiller said.
Expropriation settlements are dictated solely by factors such as the size of the land in question, its market value and actual use, he said.
"We apply the same criteria to all of these organizations," Shiller said. "The results are different because the nature of what they do is different."
Non-profit and for-profit organizations are not being treated differently, added city council's finance chairman.
"We bargain in good faith no matter what organization is involved," said St. James-Brooklands Coun. Scott Fielding.
The first phase of Winnipeg's rapid-transit corridor, which calls for a new bridge over Osborne Street at Confusion Corner and a tunnel underneath the CN Fort Rouge Yards, is supposed to be completed in 2011.
The city has no financing to build phase 2 of the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor, a six-kilometre extension from Jubilee Avenue to Bison Drive. It is expected to cost $189 million.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 19, 2010 B1
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