Condo sewage issue goes to court today

By Collin Gallant on November 16, 2017.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

Three local condo associations will ask a judge today to rule whether the City of Medicine Hat is liable for a sewage station that’s been a point of controversy for about a decade.

The ownership and operation of the lift station at the River Ridge Condos has been an issue since the association first petitioned council to take it over in 2010.

It accepts waste from adjoining properties but is owned wholly and paid for by residents of the complex.

That, they say, is both unfair and a failing of the city to not force the original developer to meet obligations before issuing permits.

Successive city councillors and administrators have argued the city has not added to what is a complex problem and have even offered conditional deals to take over the facility.

A two-day trial is scheduled to begin this morning at Court of Queen’s bench in Medicine Hat.

The plaintiffs in the action are three condo associations — River Ridge, the nearby Garden Homes development and RiverStone condos.

“The purpose is to ask the court to issue a writ … to get the (city) to operate the station as they should have from the beginning,” said spokesperson Pat Kraus, a condo owner and chair of the River Ridge Condo owners’ deep utilities committee.

“This is what we asked for in the beginning. We couldn’t agree and we wanted a higher opinion.”

City council members have said several times this fall they would not comment on the issue while before the courts.

Kraus has been active on the issue since at least 2009, when her group won a court order for original developer Medican to maintain the statio, after condo owners were surprised to discover they also owned the station that serviced adjoining properties.

The following year however, Medican filed for court protection from its creditors and the successor company is no longer in operation.

It is common for condo associations to build and maintain their own utility infrastructure, such as on-site sewers. However, joint use and operating agreements are usually a condition before land is subdivided or other buildings are connected.

The River Ridge facility however, apparently proceeded without such an agreement, and therefore River Ridge Condo owners became owners since it is on their common property.

Condo owners have long argued that the subdivision of the property by the city’s planning department shouldn’t have proceeded without the agreement.

The issue has been bandied about at Medicine Hat city council for years.

Shortly after the 2014 election, council offered to take over and upgrade the station (it doesn’t meet municipal standards) at a cost of more than $1 million. The only condition was that the private parties work out an overarching agreement for other shared utilities.

That issue went silent shortly thereafter.

Originally council proposed the city pay for half and the remainder be charged back to residents through a local improvement tax.

The position at that time was that condo owners had received purchase rates which included a discount for the private sewer, and other citizens should not be responsible to pay for the station.

Originally, Masterpiece Care facility was a party to the suit, but the ownership has changed. Two undeveloped parcels are also included, but the News cannot determine the ownership.

23
-22