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Brief
History of the Lakefront Owners Association
Prior to 1998
For the benefit of new
property owners, we will briefly summarize the
history of legal problems which we have had with the WID. In
the early
1970s the WID sold the land surrounding Chestermere Lake. They
charged the owners of lake front property a small yearly charge
for the use of the water from Chestermere Lake. In the mid
1980's, the WID increased the annual charge from approximately
$70 per year to more than $200 per year.
This was a large percentage increase. WID also planned further
increases without any relationship to the cost of providing
the water. The Board of Directors of WID believes they can
charge whatever they decide. Many lake front owners refused to
pay these WID water use charges. The Board of Directors of The
Lake Front Owners Association worked extremely hard to
negotiate a reasonable agreement with WID. The agreement was
to deal with water charges, the water level in the lake, etc.
Each time we felt a deal was close, WID changed their mind. No
agreement was ever signed between WID and the Association. As
a result of most lake front owners not paying their yearly
water charge, WID took 56 Chestermere lake front owners to
Small Claims Court in 1997. We were successful in defeating
WID at Small Claims Court as the Court stated the charges
where unreasonable. The WID filed
notice to Appeal this decision in December 1997.
The Association requested and received funds from most of the
lake front owners to enable us to pay legal costs to defend
ourselves in this small claims court action.
1998 to Present
In July 1998, the Appeal period elapsed on the above Small
Claim action.
Instead of proceeding with the appeal, WID issued another
Statement of Claim in the Court of Queens Bench of Alberta (a
higher court than
previous) and served only one of our members. The Statement of
Claim was written to include all current and future
Chestermere land front owners. The defendant portion of the
Statement of Claim stated, "Francis W.C. Craddock, on
behalf of himself and all other members of a class who own or
have since 1990 owned or will in the future own lands which
are contiguous to Chestermere Lake." Indirectly, all
lakefront owners would be affected by the outcome of this
action. The WID wanted the Court of Queens Bench to approve
the following [items in parentheses were not included in the
Statement of Claim]:
"a) A declaration that all of the lands continuous to
Chestermere Lake have been properly classified as beneficial
lands pursuant to the provisions of the Act" [referring
to irrigation act];.
"b) A declaration that the Defendants are and will be
liable for the payment of the water benefit charges pursuant
to validly enacted bylaws of WID under the Act"
[Lakefront Owners must pay whatever charge the WID approves].
In addition, WID wanted
to have the prior court case overturned.
Mr. Craddock hired legal council to represent his interests in
the above
suit. The Board of Directors of the Lakefront Owners
Association met with Mr. Craddock and agreed to pay for the
legal costs because any result from this legal suit would
directly affected all current and future lake front owners.
In April 1999, this
matter appeared before a Court of Queens Bench Judge. WID
agreed to drop the above Statement of Claim. This is another
victory for the Chestermere lake front property owners. WID
ask the Judge to strike down the prior Small Claims Court
Decision and rehear the entire case. The Judge refused to hear
a new trial with new witnesses, evidence etc. The Judge agreed
to look at the prior trial based only on the facts presented
at that time if WID requested. At this time, WID has not made
this request.
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