Yes, Oscar Fech owned that land. At the time, Metis was still an expressway, meeting the city had to widen it at their cost - which would have meant purchasing land from Mr Fech, who the city had trouble dealing with.
Oscar Fech sold that half section of Land to a developer (I beleive it was $75 million), which would likely have cleared up the issue with the city not being able to purchase it. However, after the Airport Trail Tunnel went ahead, Metis Trail was downgraded from an expressway, to a Major Road (+), Developers pay for the cost of "major roads" so, it was no longer the city's responsibility to widen that stretch of metis.
That area of land is going to be called "Savanna" and I beleive that the developer is now start to get organized on doing something with it, which is probably why we see action on widening Metis Trail.
104th Ave is now open between metis Trail and 36th Street as well, and development is just starting to go ahead in the Jacksonport area (Between 36th and Metis, and between Airport Trail and Country Hills Blvd)
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