Imagine building a perfectly good deck in your backyard only to have to tear it out because it violated the town’s zoning bylaw.
That’s exactly what happened to resident Rob Hunter.
A bylaw officer told the Harvest Hills Boulevard resident he would have to rip up his deck because it was too close to his back fence.
“I love spending my Friday ripping up my beautiful deck because of East Gwillimbury’s archaic zoning bylaws,” Hunter said.
“New homebuyers beware of ridiculous six-to-seven-metre setbacks.”
Hunter estimated he had put $1,000 toward the new deck. He didn’t think he needed a building permit for the deck because it was considered a floating structure that was not attached to the house.
Hunter’s backyard is eight metres deep, so the zoning bylaw makes it difficult to build anything in his backyard.
“Who wants to build a tiny deck? You basically can’t build anything,” he said. “People don’t know you can’t build.”
The town was made aware of the complaint through a letter to council. Town staff said the deck in question was built without a building permit.
Submitting a permit application prior to construction would have provided the opportunity for staff to work with the owner to design a deck, which would have addressed the owner’s needs and complied with required setback.
Source: https://bit.ly/2BShWpf
