Woman plans to sell home due to stress caused by town's expropriation

A Truro woman is planning to sell her beloved home of 35 years due to stress caused by the town's expropriation of part of her property.

Anne-Marie Westman says she first heard of the town's intent to take over part of her property in August, when she was contacted by an engineer who told her the town needed an easement in order to run a storm sewer line across her land.

She says she was asked to sign an agreement within two days that offered her one dollar in compensation.

She declined, and since then has been locked in a dispute with the town over the matter.

"That's when the stress started for me," she said. "And since that time, it's just been more and more stressful. Fighting is not my cup of tea, but what do you do when you're sort of forced in the corner?"

The town wants to use a strip of land that runs between Westman's house on Clifton Court and her neighbour's to run an underground pipe to help alleviate flooding in the area.

Right now, the street behind Westman's house does not have a curb or catch basins to direct water when there's heavy rainfall, so the water flows down a hill and pools in her yard and those of some of her neighbours.

Westman's own home, as well as other nearby homes, have flooded more than once in the past. The most recent flood last summer caused $28,000 worth of damage in Westman's basement.

The town's project would divert runoff to the pipe that would run along Westman's property to a stormwater pond on the opposite side of the street from her house.

But Westman is concerned any excavation needed to complete the project could damage her home because it would be too close to her foundation.

She says the space between the two houses, where the sewer line would run, is about nine metres. While the pipe itself would run roughly down the middle of that gap, the land the town expropriated comes as close as about a third of a metre from her foundation.

Westman's partner, Ian Booth, who does not own the property but has been helping her deal with the expropriation issue, says both of them want a solution to the flooding, but they want a better solution than what the town has offered.

"We certainly are not trying to stand in the way of flood control," Booth said. "It's long past due and indeed I blame the engineering department of the town for how bad the flooding is here."

Town of Truro CAO Michael Dolter says the project is necessary.