A $3-million judgement against the Town of Lakeshore has been dismissed.
The Valente Group was seeking the money after building the St. Clair Shores Shopping Centre on Manning Rd. and Hwy. 22.
Lakeshore CAO Kirk Foran says the lawsuit stems from terms in a development agreement. "The town believing that the clause allowed the town to extend sanitary services to other developers in the area providing we assured Valente there would be enough capacity to develop," says Foran. "The developer understood the clause to read that we could not extend the sanitary sewers to others until their development was fully built out."
The town is now in a position to recoup its legal costs from the developer.
Foran says the claim first began in 2007. He hopes this won't deter Valente from developing in Lakeshore in the future. "During these last seven years we've done several developments with Valente," says Foran. "This has never been about us versus them."