Editor:
Thank you to the Outlook for coverage of the many legal attacks being waged by Three Sisters Mountain Village Properties Limited and Thunderstone Quarries – who share a common owner in the Taylor family – on the Town of Canmore and the previous council.
What was not covered in the March 17 article on the $63.5 million lawsuit for “disguised expropriation” of the Thunderstone Quarry lands is that the Taylor family bought those lands from George Biggy Jr. in the early 2000s when the urban growth boundary and the wildlife conservation zoning were already in place. In other words, the constraints he's now complaining about were never disguised and, importantly, would have made the land cheaper to buy than if it was zoned for development.
It’s like you or me buying an R1 lot and, knowing the rules for single-family development, applying to build an eight-Plex on it and sue the Town when our application gets denied.
The difference is that few, if any, of us lack the integrity to even dream of such a get-rich scheme, much less put it on display for all to see in the public courts.
Karsten Heuer,
Canmore
