Calgary condo complex on the hook for road repairs after litigation with developer

The South Pointe Condo complex is calling on the City of Calgary to expropriate the access road to shield residents from incoming costs.

A condo complex in the city’s southeast is facing significant costs for upgrades and repairs to a privately-owned access road, and the condo board hopes the City of Calgary can step in and expropriate.

At issue is an access road south of 130 Avenue S.E., and who is responsible to maintain it.

The South Pointe Condos were one of the first developments in the area 20 years ago and the condo’s developer acquired the land from Shepard Development Corporation, which involved an agreement for the condo complex to assume responsibility for the maintenance of the access road.

Since then, the shopping complex around the access road has grown and other agreements were signed between Shepard and the various businesses, but the condo board said none included cost sharing for maintaining the road.

“We are less than five per cent of the actual traffic that actually uses that road,” South Pointe Condos president Barbara Miller told Global News.

Shepard Development Corporation said the condominium did not carry out any maintenance or repairs on the access road between 2003 and 2019.

According to Miller, the conflict came to a head after Shepard Development Corporation completed repairs on the road in 2019, and sent the condo board an invoice for approximately $67,000, which represents the repairs as well as the lack of maintenance over the previous 17 years.

“We were just told that our contract says that we’re responsible,” Miller said. “We continued to kick back, in turn, Shepard started litigation against us and we fought it.”