Town loses court battle with small trucking company
TOWN OF GRAND VALLEY, Ont. — The mayor of an Ontario town, which lost its yearslong legal battle to evict a small family-owned trucking company from a residential area over zoning rules, now believes the issue could have been better handled.
“What we should have done was try (harder) to reach an agreement with the Walkers,” Grand Valley Mayor Steve Soloman told Truck News after a court in Orangeville, Ont., rejected the town’s latest bid to push out Paul Walker Trucking.
Soloman said he is not sure why the two sides could not come to an agreement, but misunderstanding could be a reason.
Asked whether he regrets going to court, the mayor said, “Probably I do.”
The company was founded by Angie and Paul Walker some 40 years ago in a rural area surrounded by farms and fields, but the recent creation of a subdivision has brought their property on Concession 2-3 under urban boundary.
“We did not move to town, the town moved to us,” Angie Walker said in an email to Truck News.
The town, which has a population of just under 3,000, initiated the court case about three years ago after a resident complained of noise pollution. Officials also determined that the company was violating zoning rules by expanding the business.
Angie and Paul Walker run the company with their sons. They have six trucks and trailers, hauling sand, gravel and road salt.
The town’s bid to evict the company was first rejected by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice last year. The town appealed the ruling, and once again, the court sided with the company this month.
“My first reaction was relief,” said Angie Walker.
“It has been very stressful knowing that you work hard for years to have what you have, and you could lose it all with one decision.”
She noted that the community had come to the defense of the company, and that she was overwhelmed by the support.
The Walkers are planning to continue running their business, and as far as the town is concerned, the case is closed.
“We’re going to submit to the will of the court,” said Mayor Soloman.
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I hope the stupid Mayor loses the next election! Jobs are being lost everywhere and this moron is trying to evict an expanding company?
What? You must have bought the house without seeing it first. Next it’ll be a lawsuit to change where the sun rises and sets because the rose bush you planted needs more light.
just like any town and city, developers want land to build on and municipality looking for more money for their coffers so they weed out the farmers and rural businesses place.
Tipical idiots move to area want to change stuff ( speedlimit ,stop signs , traffic flow , color of your house blah blah blah these people should stay in toronto or the country they have come from and yes they should be wearing a poppie
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Ignorant misspelling bastard
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Misspelling or not, Ron Skinner has a point, a very big point at that!
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Good one people who buy or build next to a major farm or business know what to expect. He is right I often misspelled words.
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And did you notice that the useless Town appealed the first decision?
Thank You Courts For Getting It Right*
In the town of Lee’s Summit MO Hannah Trucking Bob Hannah built his home in the country. He too built his company in a rural area not even a road he dozed his own road to his property. Time passed people built homes next to his road. Ten years later he asphalted the dirt road at his expense. Then his neighbor’s sued him for noise and traffic. He really angered them when he brought in his Cat 963 scooped up HIS asphalt hauled it to a dump.
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LMAO….Karma
Congratulations to Paul Walker and family! Trucking is so unappreciated and you were always on the side of the Angels. Keep on truckin and keep up the good fight, from the Okanagan Valley, BC.
Happy there are authorities standing up for the common worker and family . Every few years , here in Thunder Bay, there occurs a squabble between $4/500,000 unit housing developments and family businesses located for generations on previously considered homestead property. Most of the rhetoric and confusion could be avoided if municipalities and the encumbent developers would note, consider, and make allowance for the existence of the business. Instead , greed is the controlling emotion ( yes , this includes Municipalities expecting greater revenue .). So out come the Lawyers.
How much of the areas tax money did you use trying to fight this. You lost and so did the community tax dollars. Leave people alone.
A failure to provide sight plan is the issue. With know defined permitted use. Perhaps if need be a trailer of ammonium nitrate beside a fuel tank while lighting fireworks by the camp fire. That is permitted.
The town screwed up that should have been the industrial side of town
It’s just like when people from the city move to the country and complain about the smell of a farm down the road. Farm was there first, deal with it.