291A Access To Property And Right To Purchase

• 291A (1) A resolution shall not be passed for stopping up, altering, or diverting any street or part thereof if the effect of such resolution will be completely to deprive any owner of the means of ingress to or egress from any real property owned by the owner abutting such street unless in addition to making compensation to such owner, as provided in Part XXVI of this Act, another convenient means of access to the owner’s real property is provided, the sufficiency of which, for the purposes of this section only, shall be in the sole discretion of the Council; provided that where the owner consents in writing to the stopping-up, altering, or diverting of any street aforesaid the provisions of this subsection shall not apply to any resolution providing for the same. For the purposes of this section, the word “owner” means an owner as defined by the Land Title Act.
• (2) Except as provided in subsection (2.1), if the Council decides to dispose of a street that

• (a) was originally acquired by the city without payment, and
• (b) has been stopped up, altered or diverted, whether opened, maintained or improved by the city or not,

• the disposal price must be established by the Council and the owner of the abutting real property has the right to purchase the street at that price for a period of time set by the Council.
• (2.1) Subsection (2) does not apply if the owner of the abutting real property has given the city a waiver of that owner’s right to purchase.
• (3) Where there is more than one abutting owner, each shall have the right to purchase so much of the real property comprising such street or portion of street so stopped up as the Council may decide, and the price fixed by Council aforesaid shall be apportioned between the parcels to be disposed of accordingly.
• (4) If an owner does not exercise the owner’s right to purchase within such period as may be fixed by the resolution or any subsequent resolution, the Council may dispose of the part which the owner has the right to purchase to any other person at the same or greater price.
• (5) Where the real property of an owner abutting a street stopped up by resolution also abuts any other street which the Council desires to widen, alter, or divert and requires for that purpose a portion of the real property aforesaid, the Council may, notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (2) and (3) hereof, exchange therefor so much of the real property comprising the street so stopped up for the real property so required as aforesaid as may be mutually agreed upon with such owner.
• (6) If an owner of an abutting real property acquires a portion of a street under this section or otherwise, the Council may direct that the owner, as a condition of the disposal, consolidate the portion acquired with the abutting real property.
• (7) Upon the deposit in the land title office of a copy of the resolution stopping up, altering, or diverting any street or part thereof, certified as such by the City Clerk, accompanied by a plan showing thereon the street or part thereof so stopped up, altered, or diverted, together with a conveyance of the whole or any part thereof completed in accordance with the requirements of the Land Title Act and the forms approved and fees payable under that Act, the registrar shall, notwithstanding sections 107 and 108 of the Land Title Act or section 289(2) of this Act or the provisions of any other Act, and whether the city appears on the records of the land title office as the owner or not, on finding a good, safeholding marketable title in fee-simple in the applicant, register the real property described in the said conveyance in the name of the grantee therein and issue to the grantee a certificate of indefeasible title thereto. Any conveyance executed under this section shall have effect as a Crown grant.
• (8) Where the city is the owner of any real property abutting the street or portion thereof stopped up, diverted, or altered by the Council pursuant to this Act, the provisions of this section shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to the city as such owner or applicant, but in any such case it shall not be necessary for the city as the applicant to deposit in the land title office the conveyance referred to in subsection (7) hereof, and the Registrar aforesaid shall forthwith register the real property in the name of the city.

1958-72-17; 1963-60-7; 1973-93-24; 1978-25-331, 332, 334, proclaimed effective October 31, 1979; 1993-74-7; 1997-25-175; 2004-66-164, effective January 20, 2005 (B.C. Reg. 16/2005); 2022-15-73, Sch. 1; 2022-15-75, Sch. 3; 2022-15-76, Sch. 4.