In the fall of 2019 at a town-hall meeting held at Cochrane Alliance Church, 135 Riverview Community Association ("RCA") households gathered to hear about the Cochrane Golf Club's ("CGC") latest proposal to the Town of Cochrane to redevelop a portion of golf course lands, this time a retail strip mall / day-care at the pro-shop and parking location. The unanimous take-away from Residents was, "here we go again" and "no more development means no more development!"
The group unanimously agreed for the RCA to advise the Town that we flat-out reject CGC's proposal, and further instructed the RCA board to obtain a qualified legal an opinion on the enforceability of a Restrictive Covenant ("RC") benefiting residential land owners in the Riverview Community. The RCA retained the legal services of Peter Major, Q.C from McLennan Ross LLP, in Calgary as legal council, and his opinion was that the RC was well constructed. Mr. Major had significant experience (precedent-setting) in this area of the law. He is also an avid golfer and past president of the Alberta Golf Association and currently on their Board of Directors.
By early spring 2021, the redevelopment of the golf course was back on the table, with the golf course owner representative Tom Hong now applying to the courts to have the Restrictive Covenant removed completely. With the RC removed, the golf course owner would have one significant hurdle less when applying to the Town for any future redevelopment or rezoning of the golf course lands. So this is the battle line.
In early April 2021, the RCA provided the following update to residents to clarify some important information about the Court Application (lawsuit). The upshot was that only the property owners (benefited lands) could to band together to fight the CGC, not the RCA. Here are excerpts from that update [with comments]
1. The RCA operates as an organization for its members but does not own real property. Without owning real property, it is not, and cannot, be a party to the lawsuit.
2. The RCA Board does not have a mandate or legal authority on behalf of the RCA to represent property owners’ interests in court. The Board also cannot provide legal advice. The Board can, however, assist by gathering relevant and helpful information, and advising/assisting our residents in other ways.
3. The Town of Cochrane confirmed their previous position that they would oppose efforts by the Cochrane Golf Club to remove or invalidate the restricted covenant.
“the Town’s position has not changed in any material way following Mr. Hyndman’s letter of last summer [2020]. We remain watchful of this file and are active in advocating for appropriate adherence to the existing instruments. We will be certain to connect with your group as needed as this process continues to unfold and I thank you for your willingness to assist.”
4. RCA believes the Town's position is encouraging for those who are aware of and oppose the Cochrane Golf Club’s plans, but also wish to caution that the Town’s interest in this matter may not be entirely aligned with all of the different interests of individual homeowners and other legal rights should be considered.
5. The Court Application as drafted and filed by the CGC adversely negate individual homeowners’ rights granted in the restrictive covenant. [Homeowners were OMITTED from the Court Application entirely!]. If individual homeowners have a position concerning the efforts being pursed by the Cochrane Golf Club and wish to have that position communicated to the Court, that individual’s right needs to be properly advanced before the Court [ie. we have to get our names added to the lawsuit as affected parties].
6. There is strength in numbers. The more residents that engage and wish to express their position concerning the issue in the Originating Application, the better. This applies not only to the arguments that would be advanced before the Court but the sharing of legal fees or costs.
7. Since the Originating Application and supporting Affidavits have been filed with the Court and notice has been provided to a significant number of homeowners in the community, the lawsuit has been formally commenced. Before any next formal step is scheduled it is critical that individual homeowners who are interested in understanding their legal rights and participating in the legal process get legal representation as soon as possible.
8. Peter Major, Q.C. has advised the Board that he is prepared to speak to all of the individual homeowners who are concerned about the action being pursued by the Cochrane Golf Club to understand the rights each homeowner has and how they can be addressed. If you are interested in hearing from Mr. Major, who has accumulated significant information about the dispute and has experience in this area of the law, the Board would ask you to contact us so that we can help facilitate a meeting, via Zoom, as soon as possible.
9. The RCA will continue to remain involved to facilitate individual homeowners’ awareness of this legal issue but reiterate it remains the individual homeowner’s responsibility to decide if and how their individual rights are affected.
10. The three Affidavits filed in this matter can be sent to RCA members upon request.
-----------------end of RCA April 7, 2021 dispatch------------
Since then, a small group of volunteers and property owners (called the Steering Committee) and separate and distinct from the RCA have taken on a very challenging role to act as community liaison for communication between 150 respondents in a legal proceeding and our legal counsel, Peter Major. to fight back against the Cochrane Golf Club which is attempting to remove a restrictive covenant that otherwise prevents further development of golf course lands.
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