Kirkland to appeal order to refund $ 203,000 in taxes

The town of Kirkland plans to appeal a court ruling ordering it to refund about $ 200,000 in special taxes charged to the firm that owns a vacant lot that is part of an ongoing expropriation.

Last month, a Quebec Superior Court ruled in favour of Yale Properties, ordering Kirkland to refund about $ 203,000 plus interest, at an annual rate of 9 per cent, for funds collected between 2000 and 2011 for the construction of a regional water main aqueduct.

Yale Properties had argued the city acted in bad faith for levying special taxes on a lot that is unbuildable due to zoning rules and its particular location.

The lot in question is located just off of the Highway 40 service road. Yale Properties is run by the Mashaal family who also happen to control a sizable portion of Angell Woods in Beaconsfield, which has been tagged as a conservation zone in a recently adopted Montreal agglomeration urban development plan.

“We are satisfied with the judgment recognizing that the perception of this tax was unfair,” Menashi Mashaal said, adding the expropriation file hasn’t yet been settled.

The city will appeal the tax refund ruling, confirmed director general Joe Sanalitro. The special taxes levied fell under local improvement charges, he said.

“We will be appealing it,” he said. “There were things that were not made clear enough, or misunderstood, and we feel we have a good chance in the appeals process.

“In their particular case, they got billed like everybody else. At some point, in the actual ruling the judge submitted to us, there are things in there we thought were misunderstood. Since ( the appeal) is still before the courts, I can’t discuss which items these are,” he continued.

Meanwhile, Kirkland is pursuing an ongoing expropriation of two strips of vacant land along the Highway 40 service road with the goal of promoting development — the Yale lot that borders some residential backyards and an adjacent lot located next to the service road which is owned by Sassoon Shahmoon.

The lots lie side- by- side and stretch from St- Charles Blvd. west to Berne St.

According to court documents, Kirkland announced its desire to expropriate these two adjacent lots as early as 1988. A few years ago, the courts upheld the city’s expropriation efforts in light of contestations filed by the two landowners.

Kirkland won the right to take prior possession of the Yale lot and has already deposited 70 per cent of the valuation, or about $ 4.6 million, as part of the expropriation, Sanalitro said. While the city has also won the right to take prior possession of the Shahmoon lot, it hasn’t yet exercised that option, he added.

The final expropriation settlement price for both lots will be determined through the courts, Sanalitro said.

“I can’t guarantee that it will happen by the end of the year, but we are trying to get it done as soon as possible so that we can move on,” he added.

Once i t acquires both l ots through expropriation, the city will eventually resell the combined lots to a developer. While the city cannot make a profit from the sale of these properties, it can recoup administrative and legal costs.

The city will probably maintain the current industrial zoning for the lots in question, Sanalitro said.

“I don’t see much possibility of zoning it anything else,” he added. “I think it will remain industrial.”