Ottawa, Ashcroft Homes strike deal over Eastboro storm sewer

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Ottawa’s planning committee has approved a $30-million deal that will end the city’s knotty legal dispute with Ashcroft Homes and allow construction to resume on a stormwater project that has stalled the opening of a Gloucester subdivision.

City council approved the plan Wednesday, ensuring work can resume on the $19.7-million storm sewer that has been at the heart of the impasse between the city and the developer.

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That dispute has meant that 25 homeowners in the Eastboro subdivision have not been able to move into completed homes.

One of those homeowners, Sami Bibi, 57, an economist at Statistics Canada, made a downpayment on his four-bedroom home in October 2019. The $670,000 home was finished in June 2023, but Bibi and his family were not allowed to take possession because the subdivision’s stormwater system had not been completed.

Bibi said Tuesday he was relieved to learn that a deal had been reached to end the impasse between the city and the developer.

“Of course, I am very happy because this means I have a good chance to get into my house next year,” said Bibi, who intends to live there with his wife, two children and a nephew.

“I have to touch wood,” he added, “because I’ve been told before that sewer construction will start in two or three months.”

Bibi has been renting another house for $2,500 a month while waiting for his new home.

Ashcroft’s Chief Financial Officer Manny DiFilippo has previously said that it will take six to eight months to complete the stormwater sewer project once the city approves a resumption of work.

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Work on the project was halted in May 2022, and the two sides have been squabbling ever since about who should pay for the sewer.

In May of this year, Ashcroft filed a lawsuit against the city seeking up to $45 million for damages because of the city’s conduct. It was also seeking a court order for the work to resume.

Ashcroft officials alleged that city staff made “negligent misrepresentations” that led them to believe the firm would be fully compensated for building the stormwater pond, sanitary sewer and storm sewer.

The city said it agreed to pay the full cost of the sanitary sewer and stormwater pond, which served a wider area, but insisted the storm sewer was not eligible for coverage because it served only the Eastboro development.

As a result, the city said it would pay only the cost of oversizing the stormwater pipe: $8.1 million. (The deal tabled at the planning committee continues to reflect that position.)

The issue was further complicated by the fact that the two sides had not signed a formal agreement in advance of Ashcroft building the infrastructure. Ashcroft proceeded based on conditional city permits.

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It made the way forward unclear when the project ran into additional costs related to construction changes necessitated by the area’s soft, marine clay.

The deal approved by the committee Tuesday will end Ashcroft’s lawsuit. Staff warned there was “not a path forward” if the deal was rejected by city councillors.

The agenda for Tuesday’s hastily called special planning committee meeting was sent out Monday night.

Derrick Moody, the city’s director of planning services, told councillors the short notice was the result of a complex set of negotiations that only concluded Monday morning.

Orléans South-Navan Coun. Catherine Kitts said she had been angered by the process involved in the development, which has left homeowners in the dark for years and now threatens to create traffic chaos in the area.

“I am extraordinarily frustrated to be here,” she said, adding: “I have been advised by our legal counsel not to share my true thoughts on the experience of working with this developer.”

Kitts predicted that traffic in the area “will be a disaster” while the stormwater sewer is installed beneath Navan Road.

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The committee heard that Navan Road would be closed in both directions for at least six months. In 2022, Navan Road was closed in one direction for nine months, creating serious headaches for motorists, schools and businesses.

The deal approved Tuesday includes financial incentives to ensure Ashcroft’s work along Navan Road is completed within six months.

A construction timeline has not yet been developed.

The detour proposed during the closure of Navan Road will take motorists to Brian Coburn Boulevard, which is already over-capacity, Kitts said. She called the existing traffic congestion in the community “untenable.”

“I genuinely don’t understand how the traffic management plan is going to work,” said Kitts, who asked for an improved traffic management plan. “I’m at a loss on this one. I feel like it’s a no-win situation, and I feel terribly for my community.”

Orléans West-Innes Coun. Laura Dudas called the development “one of the most historically dysfunctional projects I’ve ever been aware of.”

“I still can’t wrap my head around how this has dragged on for so long and has turned into such an absolute mess,” Dudas said. “If we can’t learn from this, we can’t learn from anything.”

DiFilippo declined comment on Tuesday, saying the matter was being handled by lawyers for the city and the developer.

Andrew Duffy is a National Newspaper Award-winning reporter and long-form feature writer based in Ottawa. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

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