Railway stalls CityPlace puts condo buyers in limbo

By Kimberly Spice —

Vaughan moderated the community meeting to discuss the ‘nightmare’ delay. Several design options were presented to attendees.

A long delay in the construction of a pedestrian bridge over the railway lands is “a nightmare,”  says Adam Vaughan.

The Trinity-Spadina councillor lashed out at railway companies during a community information meeting in February, arguing that a prolonged delay in construction of the pedestrian bridge would force purchasers in Concord Adex’s Parade complex to pay rent on properties they have purchased. Their mortgages are in limbo until the building is registered, which can’t occur until the bridge is completed.

The final planning of the controversial pedestrian bridge to cross the railway lands near Portland St. onto property currently under construction by Concord Adex, has fallen into difficult negotiations.

“The challenge now is with the configuration and how do we make sure that I don’t get a phone call in a year’s time with a condominium built with a bunch of people who can’t pay their mortgages and are paying rent to Concord Adex,” states Vaughan. “I’ve got a group of residents moving into this ward that are not going to be able to close on their condominiums because we haven’t resolved this issue. It is a nightmare.”

The delays have resulted from design requirements, GO Transit representative Alan Archer countered. He argued that safety, the railway’s future plans, and efficient operations must all be part of the design.

Archer also cited increasing cost due to the addition of a suicide-prevention barrier (which will also act as a deterrent for bottle throwing) and added height to the bridge for future rail developments such as the potential electrification of the rail corridor.

“There are a lot of trains in use here,” said Archer. “A train may not be able to get out of the layaway yard on a day because damage was done to the roof so it’s a very serious consideration. We have to watch out for our trains.”

He continued, “You can get complaints down the line about poor service operations because we had to check a damaged unit on top of a train or had to check a signal that might have been shattered.”

Alan Vihant, Concord Adex’s vice president of development, told area residents, “It’s complicated. We don’t know where the final outcome of the bridge is so we are at a point where we might just have to stop drawing for a while and stop processing for a while until we get some answers back.”

The quagmire of design issues has not been disclosed to purchasers because Vihant believes this will not be a long-term problem. If Concord needs to, he asserts, they will ask for an amendment to their agreement with the city.

“The city and Concord can always amend existing agreements if there are any delays to the bridge approvals and agreements or if there are delays to the bridge construction,” Vihant promises. “In either case, there will be no delay to registration.”

Vaughan does not want the bridge to be lost to new amendments. “If there are rail folks here you need to take this back to your officials,” he said. “The goal here is to build a city not simply continually facilitate some pretty outrageous demands. You need a bit of give and take on the part of the railways to facilitate this project—it should not be this complicated.”

“At some point what you do is rob the beauty of a bridge for some very simple and some very easy to solve engineering problems,” he continued. “We really would like some more cooperation. I’ve had this meeting with the heads of GO and other rail officials and I won’t back down from that. I understand it’s your responsibility to get passengers in and out of the city and we have a responsibility to get people to and from the waterfront. [The proposals] should be done with elegance and safety in mind but at the end of the day you’re driving costs that are a little extraordinary for a pedestrian bridge.”