In 2004 the WID attended the Annual General Meeting of the Chestermere Lakefront Owners Association and explained that they had withheld a floodplain around the lake when the lots were purchased from them. Their infrastructure was vastly improved and they felt that they no longer wanted to be involved in neighbor disputes or liability. Supplying irrigation water to farmers was their focus, so they proposed to sell the remainder of the lots to each lakefront owner. They had set an asking price of $18.00 per square foot, and because of the irregular shoreline some people would not be required to purchase any land, and others would have to spend more than $80,000.00.  Not many people were even aware that they didn’t own the land to water’s edge, so this came as a huge shock to lakefront owners. That meeting ended in a near riot.

Once again, lakefront owners rallied to support the Board of Directors and raise funds for a legal battle. The members of the CLFOA worked extremely hard researching and negotiating for several years. They hired an appraiser, a lawyer, and tried unsuccessfully to urge Town Council to get involved, before our MLA Rob Anderson became involved in brokering the final deal between the lakefront owners, the Town of Chestermere, and the WID. The WID was very creative during these meetings suggesting they could add a row of homes in the middle of the lake, or drain most of the lake, and their asking price escalated to almost $40.00 per square foot during this process while lively negotiations ensued.  Finally, it was decided the Town of Chestermere would purchase the floodplain land around the lake for approximately $6,000,000.00, subdivide it, and sell each portion to the respective lot owner. This land was then added to each lot title.  Each lot owner also purchased a piece of lakebed land which extended lot sizes to approximately five feet past the end of the docks. Costs to each property owner at that time was $7.60 per square foot for the land above the shoreline, and $3500.00 for each portion of the lot under water. The Town of Chestermere (now City) was also able to purchase some lakefront land for public use. There were several properties who disputed the land purchases for varying reasons, and although most of these were resolved, in 2022 a few still remained in dispute.