Lemay Forest owner given cease and desist order for tree cutting

The City of Winnipeg has sent a letter ordering the owner of the Lemay Forest to stop knocking down trees.

The letter comes after homeowners backing onto the forest woke up Tuesday morning to the sights and sounds of trees being levelled. Dan Scanlon was one of them.

"He went straight through a bunch of trees and started knocking them down," said Scanlon.

It's the latest development in this development full of drama. Property owner Tochal Developments wants to build a 5,000-bed assisted living facility on the site.

Area residents have been lobbying to save the forest and were shocked to see trees lying on the ground.

"We had no notification or anything that he was doing it, as far as we knew, he hasn't had anything approved."

Planner John Wintrup represents Tochal. He said the work was first stopped after area residents got in the way.

"People running around the trees while they were actually falling down amongst them and running up to the equipment, besides trespassing, it's not very safe for themselves,” said Wintrup.

He then said activity was stopped for good after city officials including area Coun. Markus Chambers called on the contractor to stop felling trees. Late Wednesday afternoon, the city sent the owner a cease and desist order, saying the tree removal was being done without a permit or approvals which are required.

“Accordingly, you are hereby ordered to immediately cease and desist all operations of vegetation removal at the properties,” states the order.

But Wintrup said the owner has the right to do tree removal.

"The landowner, it's his right to remove trees. He said all along he's not going to preserve trees or own a wood lot by the end of this year,” said Wintrup.

Plans for the housing project have not been approved, in fact, they've been rejected by three city committees and go for a final vote at city council Thursday.

But this is likely not the final chapter of this ongoing saga, even if council says no.

"We're appealing to a reasonable body whether it's the Municipal Board or the courts, something's happening here," said Wintrup.

Scanlon said no one wants the development to move forward.

"I think he's just doing this out of spite, I think that his idea is he'll knock down all the trees and then try to reapply again next year when it's just an empty lot," said Scanlon.

CTV News asked Chambers for comment. He said he would not comment until after the council vote.