Stefan Nespoli Project Manager, Shareholder Edison Engineers Inc.
Luis Hernandez Associate Shibley Righton LLP
Playing Fair in the Sandbox
A Shared Facility Should Consider Its Own Reserve Fund Study Sharing Can be Hard. Establishing a Framework for Sharing is Even Harder
Sharing and Sandboxes Sharing is a life skill we were all taught in kindergarten. Yes, some of you surely learned it sooner, and yes, some of us are still working on it. It seems simple yet has proven to be an incredibly difficult concept to implement in sandboxes across this province for many years. You may have been playing with the toy dump truck and your teacher would be the one to say, “you can play with that for five more minutes, then give someone else a turn.” By creating a scenario where both parties experience the joy of filling that truck with sand and promptly dumping it into a pile, your teacher is endeavouring to create a clear, fair framework, leaving both parties satisfied.
Shared Facilities There is no one-size-fits-all model for shared facilities. There are endless con-
figurations. The most common shared facility arrangements include: high-rise towers that share an underground garage or lobby, corporations that share amenities (e.g. gyms, games rooms, cinema rooms), and townhouse condominiums that share roadways and recreational areas (e.g. playgrounds, pools, BBQ areas). Though they are seemingly everywhere now, shared facilities have not always been around. However, as more condominiums were built, the idea of shared facilities became more popular as a way
to more efficiently use resources in land developments. In theory, they are a wonderful idea – communities can share space and amenities, and in so doing they each bear reduced costs. Regrettably, as with many things, the theory does not necessarily translate into practice. Even the best run condominiums can become mired in shared facilities drama simply because of their governance structures. An interesting fact is that shared facility areas are not jointly owned by the conCONDOVOICE FALL 2020
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ILLUSTRATION BY CLAYTON HANMER
This article is about shared facilities and the frameworks that can help make them successful. Unlike that toy truck, shared facilities can be multi-faceted, complicated beasts governed by detailed sharing agreements, and repair and replacement plans. Some shared facilities don’t even have these frameworks in place, which can lead to further disputes and unrest in the community.
