By Pepper Parr
June 18th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
The Official end of a sad story – one that cost the city of Burlington a bundle and grief to three citizens and some pain to the Burlington Gazette.
Back in 2010 when the Gazette first broke the story of trucks hauling land fill onto the Air Park property, the public learned that there was no permit to put the land fill on the site; there was no site plan filled and for a period of time no one was quite sure where the fill had come from.
The city sued, the Air Park owners sued and a couple of years later it all ended up with the city losing a critical appeal and the decision by council not to take it any further.
50,000 tonnes of landfill were dumped on the Air Park property – without the required permits.
The 50,000 tonnes of landfill are still in place, Barbara Sheldon still can’t see much outside her kitchen window other than a pile of earth that should not be there. The value of her property is considerably less than it was the day the first truck arrived.
Barbara Sheldon stares up at the small hill of landfill that has been dumped on the property next to hers.
The Mayor at the time look at the earth; said this is intolerable and drove back to his office. Nothing was done to make things right for Sheldon.
The Gazette, the Gazette publisher, Vanessa Warren and Monte Dennis were sued for $100,000. Years later the case was xx without costs. The document saying so is set out below.
We got his notice from the lawyer representing the Air Park on Friday of last week:
“For reasons I do not understand, the court in Brampton misplaced the order Justice Daley signed on October 30, 2018 before it was entered. One of our assistants has been following up with the Court, and the document was finally found and entered. I attach a copy of the entered order for your files.”
The final word – on a sad part of Burlington’s history.
There was some satisfaction in knowing that we weren’t wrong; all the details are wrapped up in a cloak of silence. A way was found for the Air Park people to use a specific document to slip out of the bind they had gotten themselves into when they sued; they were able to walk away with nothing but their own legal costs to bear.
Dennis, Warren and Parr had to suck up their own costs.
Vanessa Warren did a superb job of pulling together the evidence to support the defence argument that there was no libel committed.
Vanessa Warren proved to be a champion at pulling data together – the photo tells that story.
Maybe there is a movie or a television series in all this. It could include the buzzing of Dennis’s home by a helicopter late at night, the obfuscation and the damage done to a property owner.
Vince Rossi, president of the Burlington Executive Air Park.
At some point someone somewhere will want to do something with the Air Park. The current ownership is the stumbling block to anything reasonable being done.
There is considerable benefit to having an airport in the Region. Just don’t tell the Premier, he will want to allow the owner to exercise the right for an urban boundary expansions. If you think that is a stretch take a look at the development proposal for 29 stories on Lakeshore at Pearl.
Where there is major money to be made and lawyers who are crafty and creative – putting the two together produces some astounding results.
Progress!
