City remains embroiled in legal battle with Ambassador bridge company

The boarded up homes lining the west-side of Indian Road in Windsor’s  historic Sandwich town neighborhood show the scars of the battle between Manuel “Matty” Moroun’s bridge company and the City of Windsor.

According to Rob Rossati, owner and operator of the Dominion House Tavern on Sandwich street, the blight of Indian road is typical of Moroun’s treatment of the west-end for the last 20 years.

“In 15 years when the bridge is built, nobody’s going to care about what happened here,” said Rossati, who thinks Indian Road should be made into a green space. “If they even care about it today.”

The Ambassador bridge was built in 1929 by McClintic Marshall Steel Company for $23.5 million. Today it is the busiest trade crossing in North America with more than a quarter of all traded goods between Canada and the US crossing over it.

In 1979, Moroun secured controlling interest in the Ambassador bridge for $30 million through two of his companies: the Detroit International Bridge Company on the American side and the Canadian Transit Company on the Canadian side.

By the mid-1990s, Moroun began seeking permission to build a second bridge. However, before he received the necessary federal permit to do so, the Canadian Transit Company started buying up houses on Windsor’s west-end to be demolished in order to make room for the second span.

Since then, the bridge company has spent $52 million on more than 180 homes, apartments and vacant lots, which they boarded-up and either demolished or failed to upkeep.

As a result, the once picturesque and vibrant Indian Road has become a ghost town. The east-side of the lifeless street is a long and muddy field peppered with debris left over from the demolition of four residential city blocks worth of homes. The west-side is a row of mostly boarded up dilapidated houses awaiting either restoration or destruction.

According to Fabio Costante, Windsor city councilor for Ward 2, many west-end residents are enraged by the bridge company’s neglect.

“Residents are frustrated and  they have every right to be frustrated,” said Costante. “The bridge company block busting our neighbourhood had a devastating effect on Sandwich town, without a doubt.”

Some Sandwich residents recently appealed a $10 million class-action lawsuit against the bridge company after suing them in 2013 for financial damages caused by declining property values in the area. Plaintiffs argue Moroun had a duty to maintain the homes in the neighbourhood until receiving a federal permit to tear them down.

The city of Windsor is also in an ongoing litigation battle with the bridge company dating back to 2013 over the boarded up homes. According to Costante, the city is seeks to enforce its property standards bylaw in order to force the bridge company to repair the abandoned homes, which the bridge company has an obligation to maintain.

“I  think the bridge company has not been a good community partner,” Costante said. “They have not submitted any plans to city council with respect to the homes being boarded up, not just on Indian road but throughout Sandwich town. They are not meeting the requirements under our heritage district plan or any other bylaw we have in the city when it comes to these properties.”

In 2017, the bridge company finally received a conditional permit to build the second bridge from the Federal government with 12 or so conditions which must be met before they can begin construction.

However, the city of Windsor continues to prevent the demolition of many homes with a demolition control bylaw as well as the heritage designation of neighbourhoods in Sandwich. According to Costante, this issue is still tied up in appeals and litigation at various levels of court. In the meantime, the city is in the middle of negotiationing the terms the bridge company must meet to fulfill its permit requirements.

In September 2018 the bridge company launched an election style lawn sign campaign calling for the city to allow for the demolition of the houses.  Since they received their federal permit to build the bridge, bridge officials believe now is the time for the city to lift the demolition control bylaw and allow the bridge company tear down the vacants to make room for their new bridge.

However, the city continues to challenge the bridge company in court to try to force them to restore the houses that are left on the street.

While all of this goes on, Indian road is left to rot.