Algonquin Highlands pays Middletons

Posted By Chad Ingram

Posted 6 months ago

Algonquin Highlands township has signed a settlement agreement with the Middleton family for more than $760,000.

The dispute had been scheduled to go to hearing before the Ontario Municipal Board on July 19, but a statement from the township issued March 5 confirmed that an agreement had been reached between the parties.

Under the Expropriations Act, the Middletons retained the right to seek additional compensation.

And they will be getting it.

Under the terms of the settlement, the township will be paying the Middletons a further $200,000 for the 100 acres, $150,000 for injurious affection and disturbance damages, $53,334.25 of interest and $362,495.75 for legal, planning and other professional fees.

"As part of their claim, the Middletons asserted that the 100 acres would have been severable into 10 rural residential building lots thereby increasing the value of the land, and also that they were entitled to more money for injurious affection," the township's statement read.

Injurious affection essentially refers to the loss of enjoyment the family has suffered by losing their land.

The document from the township says the municipality will also pay the Middletons an amount not exceeding $5,000 for outstanding legal fees.

The process cost the township $85,000 in legal fees and just over $27,000 on planners, appraisers and other professionals.

All in all, acquiring the land has cost the township approximately $1,083,000.

"We're certainly relieved," Bill Middleton said earlier this week. "It's very bittersweet. It's been a huge strain. It's been terrible."

Middleton, now a grandfather, and his brothers grew up on the property that once belonged to his father and said his own children had learned to drive there.

"That was our playground," he said. "It was a bad loss."

Middleton said he has no regrets about the path he's pursued, calling the township's initial $200,000 offer an insulting amount.

He said two appraisals he had conducted in 2008 priced the land at $543,000 and $530,000 respectively.

Middleton called the conflict a "war of attrition" and said it was difficult to feel any real sense of victory since "you know you're frying your fellow taxpayer." However, he reiterated that he and his family, which has some 40 immediate members, acted reasonably and are entitled to their costs.

Middleton said he wishes the township had left him, his family and their land alone. The Middletons retain a 4.5-acre parcel of property.

Algonquin Highlands Reeve Eleanor Harrison said Monday that she had little to add to the township's official statement on the outcome of the settlement.

"The township appreciates the ongoing concern expressed by taxpayers with the pursuit of this long and trying process," the statement read. "Although the township is extremely disappointed with the outcome of this process and had hoped for a more cost-effective result, the closure of this dispute means the lands are now owned by the township and protected for the future."

Harrison said she was deeply disappointed at the decision and shocked by the high amount of the settlement. She said the township document would be available on the township's website for the public to see.

"This is another sad chapter in the tragedy that is Algonquin Highlands' runway expansion project," Paul MacInnes, president of the Maple, Beech and Cameron Lakes Property Owners' Association, told the Times. "In this chapter, mismanagement doubles the cost of land acquisition and the taxpayers end up paying half-a-million dollars in unnecessary legal and consulting fees."

MacInnes said the township could have solved the matter years ago for half the costs and that from reading various OMB documents he thought the township had tried to stonewall the OMB the same he said it had tried to stonewall its own taxpayers.

Also, MacInnes said he thought the OMB must have been displeased with the township's conduct since it doubled the interest rate the township was required to pay the Middletons, which he thought was done to penalize the township.

The expansion project at the Stanhope Airport is planned to add a second 1,220-metre runway at the site, but cannot proceed until an environmental assessment that is underway rules that the project is permissible.

The capital costs of the project have been estimated by the township at just more than $2 million, although it can receive two thirds funding from the provincial and federal governments through the Building Canada Fund up to a maximum project cost of $3.6 million.

The environmental scanning assessment, being conducted by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, began in October, but neither the Times nor the township has been able to garner any information from the agency about how the process is going.