The Court of Quebec rejected last Friday the appeal request from the City of Val-David, which refused to expropriate the entire land to compensate its owner whose spa project had become impossible after the construction of a school near.
This legal saga has pitted the City of Val-David and the owner of the site of the former La Sapinière hotel, Diane Beaudry, for several years. The latter acquired the land in 2014.
A first phase of the M projectme Beaudry consisted of creating a resort with a spa, then a second phase proposed building 72 short-term rental homes.
School or spa?
Cold shower for Mme Beaudry when, in January 2021, the municipality of Val-David issued a notice of expropriation on part of the site with the aim of building a school there.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The old Sapinière hotel, in 2021
However, it is on this site that Diane Beaudry planned to deploy the second phase of her project, namely the construction of small homes and the development of outdoor activities.
“The expropriation has the particular effect of amputating part of the tennis court and also has the consequences of stripping the site of several of its attractions, including those relating to outdoor activities,” we can read in the 18-page judgment.
The announcement of the construction of this school by the municipality would have hastened the end of its project.
Diane Beaudry argued that the noise generated by school customers and road traffic associated with buses was incompatible with operating near the “destination spa” that she planned to create.
“The immediate environment of the remaining part of the property will be modified to such an extent by the expropriation that it can no longer be properly used to operate a destination spa,” concludes the Court of Quebec in its judgment.
All or nothing
At the same time, the City of Val-David then offered to develop a “smaller-scale” spa on the portion of the site which was not covered by the expropriation notice.
Diane Beaudry rejected the City’s proposal and requested that it expropriate the entire site in order to be adequately compensated for the losses suffered. A request to which the court had granted, but which the municipality had appealed.
Finally, the Court of Quebec ruled last Friday in favor of the entrepreneur and ordered the City to completely expropriate the site. He also underlines that the profitability of M’s projectme Beaudry depended on the “synergy between the different characteristics and the development of the site in its entirety”.
“ [Mme Beaudry] has managed to demonstrate that it finds itself in a situation where it cannot be adequately compensated other than through total expropriation. »