Council hope for favourable outcome regarding Anglican church issue

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

Following an influx of information presented at last week’s town council meeting, council members encouraged all concerned parties in connection with the Anglican church issue to meet in hopes of contriving a win-win situation to an ongoing issue that has dominated recent council meetings and escalated into a Gordian knot.
The local politicians were presented with a timeline produced by the Western and District Historical Society (WDHS), and received some verification from the legal representation of the Anglican diocese at the meeting on Feb. 17.
After the hour-long delegation and question-answer period, several council members expressed their desire for representatives from the Anglican congregation, the WDHS, and land and building purchasers to meet separately and negotiate a favourable outcome for all members involved.
“I really want to work with all parties so it’s a win-win situation for everybody and we’re finding out new information almost by the minute so that we have to digest all this stuff and get some answers for ourselves too,” said Councillor Steve Grajczyk.
“Maybe to resolve this issue, we could all get the concerned parties together in a non-confrontational situation for a meeting outside of the chambers with administration… so we can resolve this issue and everybody has a clean understanding with what’s happening.”
Tensions rose shortly after town council passed resolution under the Historic Resource Act, imposing a 120-day freeze on actions surrounding the removal of the former St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church from its location at 237 1 Ave. on Jan. 13. The decision to implement the freeze, advertise the notice of intention, and hold an open house to determine public support for a future bylaw of historic designation, provides a possibility to preserve the historic significance of the 106-year-old church if council were to designate the site a municipal historic resource.
The WDHS was verbally offered to purchase the building for $1, and remove it off the land. While the property was not deemed a historical site by the province, the WDHS asked for municipal historic designation in order to still be eligible for provincial funds that are no longer available if the building were to be moved off its original location – funds, not all provincial grants, the society said could total up to $200,000. Therefore, according to the WDHS, the society determined the church building in situ was preferred to the designation at a new location.
According to the timeline provided by the WDHS, the society had discussed seeking financial support to purchase the six lots and the church building with representatives from the Anglican Church in early September of last year. The document then states that four days later the society was informed that an offer had been made on the lots and that the Anglican diocese of Calgary had accepted the offer. With a few days left until the congregation voted on the offer on Sept. 21, 2015, WDHS said they were able to accumulate $470,000 through a private investor and help from the Town of Strathmore. Due to a technicality, if the Town of Strathmore was named as purchaser, financing could not advance – leaving the society $70,000 short and unable to draft or present an offer.
“I stood in council before saying that we wanted to ensure you that we wanted a win-win for everybody,” said Bruce Klaiber a member of the WDHS.
“We’ve never done anything in this process to antagonize or done anything to be mean-spirited at all. We have followed the act. We had hoped for negotiations but as I said everything happened within four days. If we were to follow the act as it’s written, my understanding is we would’ve never had to make an offer at all.
“We made the offer because there were six lots involved. We knew that the congregation and the diocese wanted to sell all six lots, and that’s why we scrambled around trying to get together that kind of bid.”
As the focus of the WDHS had shifted from purchasing the building for $1 to purchasing the six-lot property, the dollar never exchanged hands, and the congregation entered into a written agreement to sell the church to a third party, who was willing to move the building off the site, on Dec. 17, 2015.
However, the 120-day freeze passed in January now impacts the Anglican church parish which is desperate for the construction of a new church building and in need of the funds from the sale, the developer who purchased the land the church is situated on, and the buyer of the church building who remains anonymous.
As was confirmed by the solicitor of the Anglican diocese, R. Bruce Brander – who stated the presented timeline didn’t always match up with the timeline he had assembled – and previously by Angela Arinze, the rector’s warden for the St. Michaels and All Angels Anglican Church, an agreement of purchase for the sale of the six lots and a separate deal to sell the building and move it off the site have been signed.
“The problem the church is in, is we have as what we view as two valid agreements,” said Solicitor R. Bruce Brander.
“You can hardly start sitting down and negotiate with somebody else another agreement, that would inherently violate our good faith we wish to perform with the agreements we already signed. That’s the trouble.”
The regular council meeting further presented council with an opportunity to receive clarification on property rights, ensure the Strathmore residents that council has not yet made a decision on the matter of historic designation, and publicly reminded the community to attend the open house on March 1.
Furthermore, in an attempt at finding a happy medium, Councillor Denise Peterson, Councillor Steve Grajczyk, and Councillor Pat Fule echoed the call for negotiations between the parties involved in regards to the church building. Klaiber also presented a plan B, which would assure funds to move the church and transfer ownership back to the society, if council chooses not to designate the area, and the building owner was unable to remove the church by April 15 – the closing date of the pending deal.
If council decides to designate the site a municipal historic resource, compensation will be provided to the current landowner on title.
“We seem to be focusing on doomsday here,” said Councillor Brad Walls. “This council, to be very clear, has not made a decision. So maybe let’s not focus so much on the doomsday and maybe listen to the facts and on [March] 23 perhaps we make our best decision at that time.”
For now, the concerning parties remain in ongoing negotiations. The open house will take place on March 1 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Strathmore Civic Centre. To take part in the WDHS survey to gather public opinion on the preservation of historical resources in the Western Irrigation District, visit www.surveymonkey.com/r/BHR9ZFD