By Trevor Greenway
Hendrick Farm residents may not be getting the “farm” they were promised by developers, but they have reached an out-of-court settlement that has consumed this particular Chelsea neighbourhood for the past three years.
Development company Landlab president Sean McAdam released a joint statement on March 11 between his company and the farm’s residents, stating that “the parties involved in the legal proceedings over the agricultural servitude have decided to settle their differences and bring the legal chapter to a close.”
Residents of Hendrick Farm filed a lawsuit in May of 2021 after Hendrick Farm ceased operations of the organic farm due to financial instability.
Resident Geoffrey O’Brian previously told the Low Down that part of the reason he purchased property in the development was the prospect of an organic farm. According to the statement of claim in the original lawsuit, residents did not ask for financial compensation but an injunction to restore the organic farm.
According to McAdam, the farm cost developers $820,000 to run between 2016 and 2019, but it only brought in $113,000 in sales during that time. Hendrick Farm converted the organic farm into a community park in 2021, but 17 residents filed an injunction against the development, requesting that the park be redeveloped back into an organic farm.
In 2022, Landlab requested a dismissal of the case, but Justice Anne-France Gagnon sided with residents and said it should be heard on its merits.
Since then, the two parties two parties have settled.
“Hendrick Farm understands and acknowledges, with the benefit of hindsight, that it could have handled the matter differently,” wrote McAdam in the statement. “While some may have preferred to maintain the farm, walking in the garden and the community plots, seeing the bees, butterflies and chickens reminds us all that there is beauty and nature around us.”
The statement stated that the settlement “should not be interpreted as an admission of liability by anyone.”
The details of the out-of-court settlement have not been disclosed.