Home owners feel city is trying to bully them

One of the residents whose house is located directly beneath the flight path of planes coming in for a landing at Peterborough Airport says he’s upset that the city has made no attempt to reach a settlement to buy his property over the last few weeks.

Now council will vote on Monday to start the process of expropriating Bill Fields and six of his neighbours.

“If they (city officials) tried to negotiate, we’d probably negotiate,” Fields said. “But they don’t seem to want to. They seem to want to bully us. That’s how I feel.”

Fields and his neighbours live on Greenwood Rd. in Otonabee-South Monaghan Township, just east of the airport. All their homes front on the Otonabee River.

On all their properties, there are tall trees standing in the flight path as planes come in for a landing to the east.

The trees didn’t pose a problem years ago, when Fields bought his property; the city-owned airport wasn’t busy. But now it’s considered the busiest small airport in Canada and Fields says there are planes coming in for a landing — some barely clearing the trees on his property — every five minutes of every day.

A couple of years ago, the city offered to buy a tree easement from the residents that would allow the municipality to cut down the trees. The residents said no.

Then the city tried to buy the properties outright, but Fields and his neighbours say they weren’t being offered a fair price.

In an interview Thursday, Fields said he’s still holding out for more money.

“It’s not enough — open the wallet or I don’t make the sale, right?” he said.

At a meeting on Feb. 26, councillors gave preliminary approval to begin the process of expropriation. On Monday, they vote a final time on that plan.

Patricia Lester, the city solicitor, stated by email to The Examiner on Thursday no settlement has been reached yet with any of the seven property-owners.

“But the city will continue to try to reach such settlements with all homeowners, that reflect an acceptable value to the homeowners and which also respects the interests of our taxpayers,” she wrote.

A settlement can be reached with the property owners at any point, she added, as the expropriation process is taking place.

The city council meeting begins Monday at 5:30 p.m.