Judge awards developer $5M after ruling 2 city planners deliberately stymied development of Parker lands
CBC
Developer Andrew Marquess has won a $5-million judgment against the City of Winnipeg and two planning officials deemed by a judge to have deliberately slowed the progress of Fulton Grove, a 1,900-unit residential development planned for the former Parker lands.
In a decision issued Thursday, King's Bench Justice Shauna McCarthy ruled former chief Winnipeg planner Braden Smith and senior city planner Michael Robinson are "liable for misfeasance in public office" for taking actions that stymied efforts by Marquess to develop 19 hectares in the northwestern corner of Fort Garry.
The city, McClatchy ruled, is "vicariously liable" for the wrongdoing of the two employees. She dismissed claims made against two other officials — planner Martin Grady and John Kiernan, Winnipeg's former director of planning, property and development.
Dave Hill, legal counsel for Marquess, said he is pleased with the result.
"It's a very difficult thing to succeed in a case against public servants. But when they do what the two of them did here, they're liable, and the city's liable for their actions," Hill said in an interview.
The lawsuit was borne out of the developer's frustration with the pace of development on lands he acquired from the city in a 2009 swap for land he owned in Fort Rouge.
In his initial statement of claim in 2018 and subsequent hearings in 2021, Marquess argued the city and its officials acted improperly when they refused to allow the development to proceed.
In a 92-page decision that analyzed the actions of all four of the defendants separately, Justice McClatchy determined there was enough evidence to conclude Smith and Robinson deliberately got in the way of the Fulton Grove development.
"I find that there were several instances of bad faith and deliberate conduct which were intended to slow or frustrate the plaintiffs' applications and that the individuals were aware their conduct was unlawful and likely to cause harm to the plaintiffs," McCarthy stated in her decision.
Some of those instances included efforts to change the nature of the required application, expropriating land for a retention pond without prior disclosure and bringing forward concerns about protecting trees in the Parker lands without previously making forest preservation a requirement of the application.
McCarthy also said Smith directed two City of Winnipeg planners to slow down the planning process and when one of those planners refused, he was replaced with another planner.
The justice said Robinson abused his authority by delaying the Parker development application.
CBC News was unable to contact Smith, who lives in British Columbia. The City of Winnipeg has not yet commented on behalf of Robinson, who still works for the city.
McCarthy also said there is clear evidence both officials were acting at the behest of River Heights-Fort Garry Coun. John Orlikow.
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