Stantec Geomatics

We honour Stantec Geomatics out of Calgary for their registration of a space strata plan.

One of Stantec's clients owned a major shopping centre in the City of Calgary with a large undeveloped area used as a parking lot and required a caveat to remain as such. Calgarians, and particularly any former SAIT graduates, will recognize this parking lot as the parking lot on the southeast corner of the North Hill Shopping Centre.

So the challenge was how to utilize the area without affecting the surface parking. Another of Stantec's clients was interested in purchasing the air rights in order to develop a residential condominium complex. The concept of working for "both sides" is a common occurrence for a land surveyor but proved to be a challenge having regard to the concerns of each party as well as the approving authorities.

The goal of the first client was not only to be entirely separate from the condominium but also to retain the original title with the exception of the air rights. The second client, the one developing the condominium, wanted to retain ownership of the columns and the underground foundations.

The concept of floating the property line at some distance below a structure in the air, with the surface title not being directly tied to the structure caused a great deal of concern for the authorities in terms of compliance with the building code and firewall separation. The process described was unique in using a variation to the normal approach to separate ownership while providing a means to ensure the interests of all stakeholders were met, providing society with an answer to the sale of air rights and the ability to develop the air space.

Mr. Loeppky addressed the luncheon on behalf of Stantec Geomatics Ltd.:
Ken really stole my thunder in describing pretty much what we did. It was a unique circumstance where we had two clients that we tried to please and then all of the regulatory authorities around that. The big thing was not just being a little innovative in terms of what we did with the strata plan, which is usually that sliver out of a certain area. What we managed to do with the tremendous help of LTO was be able to establish a line and work down to hell and work up to heaven - and yet connect it by the columns, the elevator shafts and the ramps.

That challenge was brought on by the banks. They were concerned that they needed to protect that item there. In the process that we went through, I spoke to many of my colleagues in Calgary and, as a matter of fact, some across the country. One in particular, McElhanney in Vancouver, was very helpful.

I don't think it was really the idea of the individual plans that made it so unique, and I certainly thank the committee and Council for bestowing this special recognition to Stantec, but the ability to think outside the box in terms of the surveyor leading the charge whereby we were able to deal with the approving authorities, the Land Titles Office, the architects, the lawyers and all of the other issues that came to bear.