Lasalle’s notice to seize property shocks family
A young Lasalle family says they’ve been blindsided by news the town wants to kick them out of their home to accommodate drainage improvements needed for further development in the municipality.
Shawn Maheux said he and his wife, Katie, received a “very vague” registered letter from the town last July regarding the Howard/bouffard master drainage study and subsequent meetings with town officials led to the realization they are going to lose their house.
“They were very adamant in saying, ‘Yeah we’re going to need your property.’ We were kind of in shock at that time,” Maheux said.
He said the West Cahill drain runs directly along their Bouffard Road property and a home that has been in their extended family for 25 years.
Shawn and Katie have been raising their three elementary school age children there for the last eight years after buying the house from Shawn’s parents.
It’s only three doors down from the kids’ maternal grandparents who help get them to their school bus and often babysit.
“What they were saying they needed to do was expand that ditch significantly, over a hundred feet, to accommodate stormwater management for the new development of the Lasalle area.”
Peter Marra, director of public works, is working with Dillon Consulting to prepare a master drainage study for the area.
“What is being proposed is to solve a situation that we have regarding flood waters and the way the water currently sits in that area and how do we allow development to occur,” he said. “There is property required in order to build what is being proposed.”
Marra said owners of properties that may be negatively affected by the proposed project were sent letters in an effort to make them aware of the study and to involve them in the process. That followed an initial public meeting that no residents attended.
“There’s nothing worse than showing up one day with a letter saying we need your property and they had no clue about even wanting to provide objections, input and all that type of stuff,” Marra said.
And while expropriation has not been discussed, Maheux expects that is what will eventually happen after a “horrible appraisal” of their home was received, followed by an offer to purchase from the town that was rejected by the couple.
“We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars difference in what the town offered,” Maheux said regarding the value of their 3,500-square-foot, four-bedroom home with a three-car detached garage on just under half an acre of property dotted by mature trees.
He added officials told him, “We’re so far apart. We’re not going to move forward until it’s determined that your property is needed.”
Maheux said two weeks later he noticed that a town display mapped out where the expanded drain would go, which had large red Xs over four homes, including his.
That public display was at the second public information centre set up by the municipality in December.
“We’ve been experiencing so much stress and anxiety,” said Maheux who, along with his wife, has lived in Lasalle all his life. Not knowing what is happening because the communication has been very poor with us directly.
“They have not called us in for one meeting. They have not come by our house. They have not talked to us. They have not made any gesture to indicate that we will be taken care of or not to worry.”
If the estimated $49-million project goes forward, two neighbouring homes will also need to be acquired by the municipality. The estimate doesn’t include the cost of property purchase.
“Certainly then that is the avenue that the town would have to proceed down, whether it’s discussions, negotiations and then ultimately expropriation if there’s not ability to move forward,” Marra said.
“Right now, the study is high level, preliminary and we’re processing through this to develop an ultimate solution.”
Council will ultimately have to make a decision on the project. Marra said it’s tough to give a time frame but in the best-case scenario, it may be three or four years before a shovel hits the ground.
A 30-day public review of the study is tentatively set for March.