Amazing. Matty Moroun now has to demolish his new US duty free store at the Ambassador bridge. I never thought they'd go that far.
http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Judg...399/story.html
Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun has been ordered to demolish his newly constructed duty free store and gas pumps on the Detroit side after a judged ruled Friday that the company violated government agreements and illegally built the structures on city property.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Prentice Edwards ordered the bridge company to appoint someone within 21 days to oversee demolition and present a timetable for removal of the structures.
The Michigan Department of Transportation launched the lawsuit claiming the bridge violated the design and terms of agreement under the Gateway Project — a US$230-million effort to improve freeway connections to the bridge on the U.S. side.
Along with building the structures on City of Detroit property, the bridge company also violated the project agreement by building its own enclosed truck lane on Fort Street.
It also failed to build a 40-foot-wide access road exiting the bridge from Canada to the new $17-million Michigan Welcome Centre constructed a few years ago by the state.
It was unclear Friday whether toll booths at the
Detroit bridge entrance and massive pillars designed for Moroun’s proposed twin
span may also must be demolished.
“We are gratified with the court’s ruling,” said Bill Shreck, spokesman for MDOT. “We hope this means we will get the trucks off Fort Street and the local community will get the project they were promised and what we contracted the bridge company to do.”
Tensions have been high between the state government and Moroun for over the past year. In May, MDOT blocked new freeway on-ramps to the bridge plaza with massive mounds of dirt because of the bridge owner’s violations under the Gateway Project agreement.
The bridge is reviewing the ruling and it has not decided whether it will appeal, said president Dan Stamper.
He put a positive spin on the ruling, pointing to the possibility of MDOT removing the dirt.
“Sometimes a loss can be a win,” Stamper said. “With this ruling in its favour, hopefully MDOT now will open the completed ramps providing direct freeway access to the Ambassador Bridge. The ramps have been finished since last May and MDOT has held them hostage because of this dispute which involves a tiny portion of the [[Gateway Project).”
A spokesman for Transport Canada did not want to comment on the ruling.
The decision does not have any impact on the proposed binational government effort to build a downriver Windsor-Detroit span linking the industrial communities of Brighton Beach and Delray. Transport Canada and MDOT are partners in that effort along with Ontario’s Transportation ministry and U.S. federal government.
It may have a major impact on Moroun’s efforts to build a twin span because he requires some of the city property that Edwards ordered vacated.
Minutes after Friday’s court ruling, Moroun suffered another blow when the U.S government launched another lawsuit in U.S. District Court calling on him to “cease and desist” using the term “federal instrumentality” in any of the bridge’s property or court dealings.
The bridge owner has used the moniker frequently for years after obtaining a state ruling that allowed him the right to take over city lands in Detroit and gain immunity from regulations.
“The United States hereby requests enforcement of federal law through a declaration by the court that [[the bridge company) is not a federal instrumentality or limited federal instrumentality or any type of appendage of the federal government,” said the court filing in the Eastern District Court of Michigan by United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade.
“There is no basis in fact or in law for [[the bridge company) to hold itself out as a federal instrumentality,” she said in court documents.
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