A Cambridge resident appealed to council to reconsider its bid to fully expropriate the land on Townline Road he was hoping to build his dream home on.
"I humbly request council to scrap any plans to build a parking lot on that property and honour me that the promise made to my family over the years for leaving us the land to build our dream home," said Muhammad Faisal Islam, who currently doesn't occupy the 0.6 acre property on 4910 Townline Rd. "If council approves full expropriation today, I will be left with no hopes for having our dream home built for our family in the City of Cambridge."
He was referring to the plans to expand Blackbridge Road and the bridge, which is a few hundred metres from his piece of land.
The project will see the construction of a new high-load capacity two-lane bridge, a multi-use path, including canoe launch and cycling amenities. Further, the project will involve reconstructing portions of Townline and Blackbridge Roads, as well as the intersection at Townline, Blackbridge, and Roszell Roads. For this, staff have proposed the city fully expropriate Islam's land on the corner of the three-way intersection and demolish it to build a full parking lot.
The father of four claims he was never informed of the city's intent to negotiate a full expropriation. Islam said he only saw the mention of partial expropriation in the environmental assessment (EA) that was done as part of the reconstruction project.
However, a staff report presented by Paul Kan, manager of realty services, mentions the EA made reference to a full expropriation.
Islam emphasized that the purpose of approaching council was not to obstruct the project, but to protect his dream home.
"My family has suffered a lot since the beginning of this EA study," he said in his delegation to council. "We've waited for so long to get this over with so we could build our dream home and live ours lives happily. Our children are older now and it was always the plan to settle down for good on our property.
"A full expropriation," Islam added, "shatters all those plans. I'm not looking for anything extraordinary, all I want is a fair agreement between myself and the city for a partial expropriation."
He said the reason he was given for a full expropriation was that a parking lot was needed on the west side of the bridge, which is a couple hundred metres from his property.
"A new document shows a large new parking lot on my property," Islam pointed out. "There is no public record of this design. It was never part of any draft presented to the public. Neighbours are not aware of any changes of the original design. Now that it's public, the entire neighbourhood is registering their opposition to such a parking lot on the east side of the bridge."
And some neighbours did delegate to express their opinions.
"What we've noticed in our walks and paddle is that a lot of people that park on the Roszell Road area use the trail," said Tamara Hetherington, who lives on River Road. "It can be an average of 10 cars on the weekend. On the Blackbridge Road side, it's up to 30 cars on the weekend."
Tamara said she appreciates the property owner wants to use the property as he pleases, but she also commends the city for recognizing the need for parking.
"I've seen a city design and they're really working to have a property architectural structure and keep it aesthetic and safe and have a nice buffer from the neighbourhood," she said.
Her husband Tom Hetherington also presented to council.
"The area down here is overrun with vehicles at this point and it has been identified that we need some type of parking," he said. "The house has to go because of the road expansion and there is not enough land left over to have any type of safe accommodation. That's how it's been explained to me. I think some of the neighbours are concerned about the structure of the parking area. It will just overwhelm that parking lot in our community."
Vijayraja Balasubramaniam, who lives across from where the proposed parking lot would be on 4910 Townline Rd., wasn't pleased.
"They say there's a parking lot coming across my house," he said. "We are concerned about that because of the privacy concerns. We want to live in a nice neighbourhood not in front of a parking lot where every day a new face is showing."
Coun. Pam Wolf questioned when the mention of a full expropriation first came up.
"Wasn't the negotiation always partial? It was council that suddenly decided that instead of partial we should look at full because of the parking and canoe launch," she said, adding she could understand why the homeowner would think it was a sudden demand from partial to full expropriation.
At that point, city staff pointed out that council should move into closed session to further discuss related legal matters.
A vote was called when council came out of the in-camera session, and with the exception of Wolf, all council members voted in favour of the full expropriation.
