Written by MARK NIELSEN
Citizen staff
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Tuesday, 15 July 2008 |
Harold Rimmer stands next to his machinery that is blocking Cranbrook Hill Road. (Citizen photo by Brent Braaten)
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FIFTH AVENUE
A backhoe was parked Tuesday across the north end of the road, near the intersection with Otway Road, to prevent the city from continuing a road maintenance project until the matter is settled.
"It's too bad you've got to go to such drastic measures to get anybody from the city to listen to you," said Harold Rimmer.
City operations superintendent Bill Gaal said the city considers it to be a public road maintained by the city and officials are seeking legal advice on the issue as it currently stands.
"It's an unfortunate situation," Gaal said.
City workers have been taking the asphalt that has been ground off Fifth Avenue as part of a paving project stretching from Carney Street to the bypass, and trucking it up to Cranbrook Hill Road where it's been spread out and compacted over top of the existing gravel road.
Looking for land large enough for horses but still close to the city, Rimmer and Terri bought the property about four years ago.
At issue is a roughly 1.5-kilometre section of the road. It's been used for years by nearby residents to reach their properties from Otway Road, but the Rimmers claim they own the land on which the road is located.
They want the city to go through the formality of establishing specific boundaries for the road and then expropriate the stretch -- which would require paying the Rimmers fair market value for the land -- but assert city officials have done little more than given them the run-around.
"We'll get back to you, we'll get back to you, we'll get back to you, that's all they say," Rimmer said. "And it's always a different person that you're talking to."
The city insists that they subdivide the property first, Rimmer added.
"They want it both ways, they won't define the road as to where they want it to be and they won't expropriate it from the property," he said, and added both B.C. Hydro and Telus went through the process of registering easements for putting lines through the property.
Rimmer has refused to move the backhoe for anyone, forcing neighbours to take the long way around to reach their homes.
Like the Fifth Avenue project, work on Cranbrook Hill Road is being done through the city's $2.9-million road rehabilitation program as opposed to being paid for specifically by the property owners along the road.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 07 September 2008 )
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