City Faces Court Challenge

CASTANET by Wayne Moore - Story: 22707October 03, 2006 / 2:00 pm
Now the lawyers are involved. Legal papers have been filed in BC Supreme Court challenging the terms of the lease between the city and Provincial Rental Housing Corporation for the site of the proposed Supportive Housing unit on St. Paul. The Coalition For A Safer Stronger Inner City Kelowna (formally the St-Paul Business Group) has hired the services of Bruce Melville, a Municipal Law specialist out of Vancouver. Melville says the action against the city has nothing to do with the process the city used in selecting the St. Paul site, but instead the lease. The coalition alleges city council entered into the lease without providing the required opportunity for public input as stipulated under the Community Charter. "The coalition also says there were a number of terms and conditions that city council had approved on April 24, 2006, for inclusion in that lease agreement," says Melville. "My client is alleging that those terms and conditions didn't make it into the lease council approved June 12." He says the lease was approved several days before the city published the notice as required under the Community Charter. Melville believes there is a reasonable chance for success, but cautions this is new legal ground. "I have not, in fact, found cases that are similar to this because the provisions we are relying on are found in the Community Charter, which is a relatively new piece of legislation." The Community Charter came into effect just two years ago. Coalition spokesman Jim Carta says taking legal action was a tough decision. "We are very fond of our city. We want to be able to work with our city in a spirit of unity --- the future of Kelowna looks bright," says Carta. Once the court papers are filed, Melville says the city has up to three weeks to respond. After that, a court date could be set at any time. The coalition would not divulge how much they are prepared to spend on the legal challenge, or how much this could cost taxpayers. Coalition representative Mel Kotler says they have a considerable slush fund to take this to the next couple of levels.