Friday, January 18, 2013

Silo Update

Fort Distributors tanks in Winnipeg
There has been an update on the mysterious silos that appeared in BNSF Manitoba's yard.

Winnipeg ordered Fort Distributors to remove the tanks in mid-November. Fort appealed, apparently to council, and on Tuesday the city council's Property and Development Committee voted to uphold the order to remove them. (earlier article)

Fort's lawyer, former councilor Gord Steeves (he was my councilor and my kids' soccer coach, actually), says they will probably appeal. To whom, I am not sure. It seems likely this will go to court.

I drove by the site on January 16th and I see there is a small building at the base of the tanks now.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

FYI........those silos aren't going anywhere for a long long time. This little tiff will be tied up in legal wranglings for years to come. And I'm fairly confident that BNSF was also confident about that as well.
The City vs BNSF.! haha...good luck with that battle city councillors.
How is living across from the silos any different than living across from a high rise apartment building??
My take on it is that in the end...BNSF will win. They will tidy it up, by painting wall murals on it like Manitoba Hydro does to their buildings...Portage and St James St comes to mind. Area residents that don't like it will move and others who aren't bothered by it will move in.
Just my 2 cents. Let's see if I am wrong.

Glen
Sanford, Manitoba

Canadian Train Geek said...

I think you're right, Glen. They are likely not going away soon, if at all.

Painting them would be a good start. They are really not that dominating in the area but they could use some paint to improve their appearance.