Battle over Lemay Forest development could be heading to court

The battle over the Lemay Forest could be heading to court as the developer who owns the land is threatening the city with legal action.

Tochal Developments wants to build an assisted living facility on the site, and says it is waiting on the city to proceed.

The developer accuses City of Winnipeg planners of stalling the application process.

“The next logical step if the city doesn't respond to processing our application is legal action,” said John Wintrup, a professional planner who represents the developer.

At the same time, the developer says it received low-ball offers to sell the land.

The company has said it will sell the forest for the right price, but has received offers from the Manitoba Habitat Conservancy (MHC) and Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) for less than half of what the land is worth.

Now, Tochal Developments has sent a letter to the City of Winnipeg threatening legal action.

It alleges the city's planning department is delaying its development application.

The letter says the developer has no intention of selling the property for such paltry sums, and will commence lawfully permitted pre-development activities shortly.

“Then we get an offer, a lowball offer, to purchase the land within five days, to accept it or not while the city is delaying our application for moving forward. This is all too coincidental for us,” Wintrup said.

Area residents have been pushing to keep the forest as is.

In January, the city started exploring options with other groups who may want to buy the property.

The MHC says its offer is based on an independent appraisal.

The organization has secured funding from the federal and provincial governments, but it expires at the end of the month.

"We tried to provide a fair and full value for the property and keep it for the residents of Winnipeg so yeah, I'm disappointed the offer was not accepted,” said MHC CEO Stephen Carlyle.

MMF president David Chartrand says if a purchase price can't be reached, he is willing to start legal action of his own to prevent any development, as he has concerns there could be a cemetery there from a former orphanage.

“St. Norbert is very historic to us as Métis, of course. This is where the Métis stood firm, prevented the invasion of what we called Upper Canada at the time,” he said.

The City of Winnipeg declined to comment on the matter.