This is just maddening! How can they do this?

Two years ago my wife and I purchased a lot in downtown Southampton. The lot was initially surveyed over 200 years ago and zoned R1. We did check with the town and were told there would be no issues for building our retirement home. We had a local real estate agent, a real estate lawyer, and title insurance. We were told that The Ontario Heritage Act required that we engage an Archaeological Consultant to perform and Archaeological Assessment. Two years later we are still awaiting the Stage 2 review process. I cannot build or use my lot. No one wants to buy the lot. MPAC agreed to reduce the tax value of the lot so I no longer pay the high taxes that I did pay. The province has registered my lot as an Archaeological site and assigned it a Borden Number. The site has not produced a any points, scrappers, beads, pottery, indications of buildings. It has produced an "abundance" of fie cracked rock and stone flakes produced when making stone tools.

As a land owner I must pay the Archaeologists to recover and preserve these stone flakes that have "Cultural Heritage Value" for the people of Ontario. My building lot has been virtually expropriated. Under the Ontario Heritage Act I m not entitled to and compensation. I am not able to use the money I spend to preserve this "valuable" cultural heritage as a tax deduction or recover and of the capital loss against y income.

Recent cases before the Canadian Supreme Court regarding DE-Facto Expropriation have given me back some hope.

1. The Ontario Government has deprived me of all use of my land. I bought the land with the intention of building my retirement home. It is an offence under Sections 48 and 69 of the Ontario Heritage Act for any party other than a
   licensed archaeologist to make any alteration to a known archaeological site or to remove any artifact
   or other physical evidence of past human use or activity from the site, until such time as a licensed
   archaeologist has complete archaeological fieldwork on the site, submitted a report to the Minister
   stating that the site has no further cultural heritage value or interest, and the report has been filed in
   the Ontario Public Register of Archaeology Reports referred to in Section 65.1 of the Ontario
   Heritage Act.
2. The Ontario Government has by their own admission obtained and preserved something that has value for the people of Ontario. A designated site must have Cultural Heritage Value.
3. I purchased the land with the intent of building my home. I was not informed, nor did the Ontario government make it known to real estate agents or real estate lawyers  that Archaeological Assessments were required. When asked the Town indicated that the lot was zoned R1 and that there would be no issues in obtaining a building permit.

I am not a lawyer. I need legal help. The money that is currently tied up in this lot is substantial. I am hoping to find a lawyer or firm that is willing to take this on for a percentage of monies recovered. I believe that this would be a break through case for Ontario cases involving the DE-Facto expropriation of land through the Ontario Heritage Act.

Please indicate any interest by responding to this post.

Thank You

@neil Hi Neil. First of all, my apologies for not responding earlier. The Forum is a new tool for the OLA. I am still getting used to it. I have forwarded your post the the OLA Executive. I know we have seen this type of issue before. It is a tough one. I am the editor for the OLA ENews, a monthly email newsletter that is published once per month. I was wondering if you would like to have your story included in one of your future editions.  Perhaps there have been some new developments since September. Let me know if you would like to share your story with other landowners through the OLA ENews.