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

A Truro pistillate is readying to sell her beloved location of 35 years owed to accent caused by the town's expropriation of portion of her property.

Anne-Marie Westman says she archetypal heard of the town's intent to instrumentality implicit portion of her spot successful August, erstwhile she was contacted by an technologist who told her the municipality needed an easement successful bid to tally a tempest sewer enactment crossed her land.

She says she was asked to motion an statement wrong 2 days that offered her 1 dollar successful compensation.

She declined, and since past has been locked successful a quality with the municipality implicit the matter.

"That's erstwhile the accent started for me," she said. "And since that time, it's conscionable been much and much stressful. Fighting is not my cupful of tea, but what bash you bash erstwhile you're benignant of forced successful the corner?"

Project aims to alleviate flooding

The municipality wants to usage a strip of onshore that runs betwixt Westman's location connected Clifton Court and her neighbour's to tally an underground tube to assistance alleviate flooding successful the area.

Right now, the thoroughfare down Westman's location does not person a curb oregon drawback basins to nonstop h2o erstwhile there's dense rainfall, truthful the h2o flows down a elevation and pools successful her gait and those of immoderate of her neighbours.

Westman's ain home, arsenic good arsenic different adjacent homes, person flooded much than erstwhile successful the past. The astir caller flood past summertime caused $28,000 worthy of harm successful Westman's basement.

The town's task would divert runoff to the tube that would tally along Westman's spot to a stormwater pond connected the opposite side of the thoroughfare from her house.

But Westman is acrophobic immoderate excavation needed to implicit the task could harm her location due to the fact that it would beryllium excessively adjacent to her foundation.

She says the abstraction betwixt the 2 houses, wherever the sewer enactment would run, is astir 9 metres. While the tube itself would tally astir down the mediate of that gap, the onshore the municipality expropriated comes arsenic adjacent arsenic astir a 3rd of a metre from her foundation.

Westman's partner, Ian Booth, who does not ain the spot but has been helping her woody with the expropriation issue, says some of them privation a solution to the flooding, but they privation a amended solution than what the municipality has offered.

"We surely are not trying to basal successful the mode of flood control," Booth said. "It's agelong past owed and so I blasted the engineering section of the municipality for however atrocious the flooding is here."

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

"We've had a immense outcry from residents … that person had flooding connected their properties," helium says. "There is nary uncertainty we had to enactment for the bully of the full neighbourhood."

Dolter says determination volition beryllium nary large excavation successful the yards. The pipe, which volition beryllium drilled, volition beryllium astatine slightest 2 to 3 metres from the houses. He says it's "highly, highly unlikely" that immoderate harm to the foundations would occur.

Dolter says the municipality has done this benignant of enactment before and it's "never had an contented with thing going awry." If thing did spell wrong, the municipality would instrumentality responsibility, he says.

Alternative proposal

Westman and Booth person travel up with an alternate program that would tally the tube done the different broadside of the property, overmuch farther distant from immoderate building, successful an country that is not being used.

They accidental they person had the program evaluated by a retired technologist and an excavation expert, and some said their program would power flooding amended and support houses from imaginable harm owed to excavation.

Dolter says Westman and Booth's program was, successful fact, the town's archetypal choice, but they had to wantonness it due to the fact that the elevation and people wouldn't let the h2o to decently flow to the stormwater holding pond. In bid to execute the due travel astatine that location, the tube would person had to beryllium supra crushed level.

Westman and Booth besides accidental they were denied the accidental to contiguous their position to council.

They received connection connected Feb. 28 that municipality assembly was going to ballot connected March 3 whether to expropriate the portion of land.

When they asked to marque a presumption to assembly to reason their case, they were told they had missed the deadline to petition an accidental to speak. That deadline was the time earlier they had adjacent heard astir the upcoming vote.

The ballot passed, with conscionable 1 councillor voting against the expropriation. 

The mates have, however, met with the mayor, lawman politician and Dolter to outline their concerns and reappraisal their ain proposal.

Truro Mayor Cathy Hinton told CBC News she voted successful favour of the expropriation. 

She said expropriation is simply a past resort, but she feels the task is indispensable to amended flooding in the full neighbourhood.

Hinton said she is not an engineering expert, truthful she indispensable trust connected the proposal of the town's experts who advised her connected the matter, and she trusts their expertise.

"Look, I'm hard connected people. I don't pussyfoot around. I mean, if I thought idiosyncratic wasn't doing something, I would beryllium saying that to the CAO," she said.

Hinton reiterated Dolter's committedness that crews volition beryllium "very particular" and guarantee the onshore is restored afterward.

Westman says she plans to prosecute an autarkic civilian technologist to measure her plan, and Booth says "our objection ends" if the engineer supports the town's position.

Dolter says the municipality is besides going to prosecute a third-party technologist to measure the project, and that the homeowners volition beryllium allowed to talk with the technologist and presumption their report.

Next steps

Last week, the municipality accrued its connection of compensation from 1 dollar to $15,150. Dolter says the one-dollar connection is simply a reasonably modular starting constituent for negotiating easements. 

If Westman does not accept the caller compensation offer, she tin entreaty it, sparking a proceeding with the Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board — 1 of 2 boards created with the modulation from the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board starting April 1.

Booth says the connection is "not adjacent successful the ballpark" of the worth of the property, and does not adequately see the simplification successful worth of the remaining land.

Westman says with her spot connected the market, she volition disclose the expropriation contented to prospective buyers.

She doesn't privation to sell, but says arsenic a crab subsister and arsenic idiosyncratic with a bosom condition, the accent caused by the quality is not worthy the hazard to her health.

"I person occupation sleeping. I person occupation eating astatine times due to the fact that I'm truthful stressed," she says.

If Westman does not entreaty the compensation offer, the municipality tin statesman enactment connected the spot aboriginal this summer.