Zoning by-laws what a load of Crap

[BillM]

You are ignoring common sense. My extra foot of driveway space isn't bothering anyone now more than it was for the last 5 years.

 

This is a blatant cash grab. $400 so a committee of seven can ponder if I can have an extra foot of driveway width on my property.

 

 

Common sense and law rarely go together in the same sentence..

 

Did the contractor who did the driveway have a permit?

[misfish]

Permit to pave a drive way??????????

Since when has that been?

 

This thread boils my

 

Like the guys been saying, WHO IS IT BOTHERING ?????????

 

 

Cash grabbing CRAP.

 

How about those pool owners that concrete thier whole back yard so they dont have to cut grass.

 

Ziki,stand up for your rights.

 

Ok thats out of my system, Im off.

[Ziki]

Thank you Brian, I am glad someone has their eyes open.

[JohnF]

Zoning bylaws are definitely a pita when they work against your wishes. But what about when they do their job and protect the quality of life you enjoy, and more importantly perhaps when they protect your property's value by setting the bar for what your neighbours can do with their properties. Tn thehe problem with letting you bend the rules is that the bylaw can't be enforced against your neighbours either, and who knows what could happen to the neighbourhood if everyone made the rules to suit themselves. How would y'all like a slaughterhouse being built on the next door property? Or have the neighbour start selling adult entertainment stuff from his livingroom and having his pervy customers park on the front lawn and ogle yer daughters as they head in for a little shopping? These are extreme examples but without bylaws who knows what would pass for an acceptable standard with some folks?

 

That's why your "minor" exception has to be addressed properly. You may well get it passed as a minor variance (if you go thru the proper channels).

 

JF

[bigfish1965]

I agree with you fully John, but I think the part of having to pay $400 for a variance request is far beyond reasonable. These people already got paid. It is not a pay per service idea, it is a deterrent. It reminds me of the towns that don't let you park your boat in your own driveway. Good ideas completely blown to heck. Nothing makes people dumber than to put them into an organized committee...

[JohnF]

I agree with you fully John, but I think the part of having to pay $400 for a variance request is far beyond reasonable. These people already got paid. It is not a pay per service idea, it is a deterrent. It reminds me of the towns that don't let you park your boat in your own driveway. Good ideas completely blown to heck. Nothing makes people dumber than to put them into an organized committee...

 

 

Yup. That's a tad greedy, but it is what it is, so methinks he'll just have to suck it up and ante up if he hopes to keep the drive the way it is. The municipality cashgrab is a fight for another day.

 

JF

[John Bacon]

Are in one of the cities that were amalgamated into Toronto? I.e. Scarborough, North York, etc. I am in Scarborough and I remember reading that Scarborough began requiring permits to pave driveways in 2007. The date that you have may be the date that permits became mandatory for paving, not when the by-law was created. It is only this year that they had the man power to enforce the law.

 

A lot of people have illegal driveways in Scarborough because there was never any enforcement of the rules. I imagine that other former cities such as Etobicoke and North York are in the same situation.

 

I am surprised that they would bother you now; I would have expected them to wait until you repaved to enforce the rules. Maybe one of the neighbors complained.

 

To anyone else in Scarborough; the city now has employees that drive around looking for driveways that are being paved and make sure they have permits. We can no longer get away with paving in front of the house etc. Plan your driveway accordingly, and budget the extra $100 or so for a permit.

[John Bacon]

You shouldn't of paved your drive way without a work permit legalizing the construction.

 

I am not sure where he is, but I know that Scarborough only began requiring permits to pave a driveway in 2007. They have only begun to enforce it this year. So that comment may be unfair.

[Lunatic]

100%. They are the city and that is what they do for a living...enforce by-laws.

 

If you work with them they will be nice... I had a car at the end of my property it was parked the right way but they said it can't be un-plated....

 

I argued that its my property and it doesn't matter. Then they said its actually cities property...something like 4 Meters from the center of the road, onto the front of your property isn't technically yours.... I wanted to say then why the hell am I paying property taxes for x amount of feet when I technically only own x amount...

 

Either way... Government wins...end of story.

Thats right.

I remember years ago,a main sewer pipe had cracked (from age it was clay) It happened 1 foot in on the front lawn from the road.Naturally since the city claims something like 10' of your property from the road,My dad called the city and told them about it. They own that property,so they should be responsible right?? wrong!

They said its not their problem,so we had to go thru insurance,which wouldnt cover it( act of "god")

So we were on the hook for 7g worth of work and damage.

 

moral of this story is,Its the cities property only when its conveiniant for them,but if someone breaks their neck or something goes wrong within that 10' its your problem.

double standard. what can ya do.

[Lunatic]

I may be completely wayyy off on this one. but i remember hearing once that if you maintained a piece of property for something like 3...5..or 10 years? that it becomes yours.

i have no idea if there is any truth to this,but i remember my friend getting mad any time his neighbour mowed over his line into his (about 2 feet or so) because of that theory.

I also know another friend who lives next to a nice bit of land (enough to plant another home) that the town has ignored for more than 10 years, and it became 5 foot grass, so he had been maintaining it for the past 5 years or so. So maybe it will become his by default.

 

this could be some crazy myth,but it may be something to look into, since it went un-noticed for so long.

 

could be a different situation tho. i know that there are zoning laws and such that do not alow you to build garages and shed etc. within a foot of your neighbours property,so maybe your drive way falls under that area?

who knows.

[TC1OZ]

I may be completely wayyy off on this one. but i remember hearing once that if you maintained a piece of property for something like 3...5..or 10 years? that it becomes yours.

i have no idea if there is any truth to this,but i remember my friend getting mad any time his neighbour mowed over his line into his (about 2 feet or so) because of that theory.

I also know another friend who lives next to a nice bit of land (enough to plant another home) that the town has ignored for more than 10 years, and it became 5 foot grass, so he had been maintaining it for the past 5 years or so. So maybe it will become his by default.

 

this could be some crazy myth,but it may be something to look into, since it went un-noticed for so long.

 

could be a different situation tho. i know that there are zoning laws and such that do not alow you to build garages and shed etc. within a foot of your neighbours property,so maybe your drive way falls under that area?

who knows.

 

 

lol squatters rights? That doesn't make any sense.

 

And to your earlier post...obviously the law only applies when its in the cities favor! (I had assumed that was understood...same with insurance companies)

[Radnine]

Zoning bylaws are definitely a pita when they work against your wishes. But what about when they do their job and protect the quality of life you enjoy, and more importantly perhaps when they protect your property's value by setting the bar for what your neighbours can do with their properties. Tn thehe problem with letting you bend the rules is that the bylaw can't be enforced against your neighbours either, and who knows what could happen to the neighbourhood if everyone made the rules to suit themselves. How would y'all like a slaughterhouse being built on the next door property? Or have the neighbour start selling adult entertainment stuff from his livingroom and having his pervy customers park on the front lawn and ogle yer daughters as they head in for a little shopping? These are extreme examples but without bylaws who knows what would pass for an acceptable standard with some folks?

 

That's why your "minor" exception has to be addressed properly. You may well get it passed as a minor variance (if you go thru the proper channels).

 

JF

 

Thank you John, for restoring my faith in mankind.

 

 

Yup. That's a tad greedy, but it is what it is, so methinks he'll just have to suck it up and ante up if he hopes to keep the drive the way it is. The municipality cashgrab is a fight for another day.

 

JF

 

I wonder if fees like this aren't another by-product of a lack of funding these days, another form of user fee.

I don't want to start another rant and I am not sure, but I wonder if in the good old days in the land of milk and honey this sort of fee would not have been applicable.

Jim

[HookNrelease]

Heres the official GTA information link, outlining the Maximum Driveway sizes, minimum landscape amount for the front of your house, one interesting point is that it states "In the case of the Toronto, East York, York and Scarborough bylaws, the driveway cannot exceed the width of the parking spaces (garages) located behind the front wall of thebuilding."

I have heard that the city has plans to inspect areas and enforce the by-laws, regardless of who what when or where, ie, you buy a house You will be responsible to put back your landscaping or minimze your driveway now that YOU own the property.

 

http://www.toronto.ca/building/pdf/landsca...ments_feb08.pdf

 

cheers

 

Ian

[Dara]

These by-laws are made for a purpose. They get written to cover that purpose.

This driveway was made wider at one spot to get around a cable box.

The widening really bothers nothing. (as far as I know)

The by-law was likely made to keep people from making huge driveways.

The way the law is written it is all encompassing and will now cost $400.00 to get around when it was never written for the reason at hand.

There should be some attachment to these laws as to why they were made in the first place to make them reviewable and non applicable in certain instances. Discresion of the by-law officer or whatever.

I know this opens a whole other can of worms, but darnit, its our country, our city, we pay the taxes and should get something for it. Not just treated like a piece of crap and told it will cost us money every time we need an explanation as to why were are being ripped off.

And comments like, "well you should have checked in the first place", just drive it deeper.

Checked in the first place about what...jogging a driveway 1' around a cable box...come on.

[I'mHooked]

Get a load of this. In Burlington they amended the by-laws pertaining to paved driveways recently (in the last year or 2).

In order to have a base line for comparison, they had the city aerial photographed as of the date of the new by-law so they could counter any claims of "it was there before".

Any driveway in the photograph was deemed "grandfathered in" while any changes could be compared to the photographs and you are busted.

[TC1OZ]

Heres the official GTA information link, outlining the Maximum Driveway sizes, minimum landscape amount for the front of your house, one interesting point is that it states "In the case of the Toronto, East York, York and Scarborough bylaws, the driveway cannot exceed the width of the parking spaces (garages) located behind the front wall of thebuilding."

I have heard that the city has plans to inspect areas and enforce the by-laws, regardless of who what when or where, ie, you buy a house You will be responsible to put back your landscaping or minimze your driveway now that YOU own the property.

 

http://www.toronto.ca/building/pdf/landsca...ments_feb08.pdf

 

cheers

 

Ian

 

 

The complaint you are making is the reason why any legitimate lawyer would buy "Title Insurance" when doing the land transfer of a property. Thus you would be covered for something you were not aware of or something you were not responsible for.

[CLofchik]

This entire th'd reminds me why suburbia is overrated. Too many Libtards with too much time on their hands mixed with a sprinkling of Snivel Servants trying to justify their existence on your dime.

 

Ziki, you should have known better than to buy a house in Mississauga, your story will not end well.

[TC1OZ]

This entire th'd reminds me why suburbia is overrated. Too many Libtards with too much time on their hands mixed with a sprinkling of Snivel Servants trying to justify their existence on your dime.

 

Ziki, you should have known better than to buy a house in Mississauga, your story will not end well.

 

Agree, its why I moved from St. Catharines/Niagara falls.....there are by-laws no matter what city/town you live in these days.

 

But the difference between the big cities versus small towns is night and day!

[Dara]

Agree, its why I moved from St. Catharines/Niagara falls.....there are by-laws no matter what city/town you live in these days.

 

But the difference between the big cities versus small towns is night and day!

 

 

No...its the same crap everywhere.

Heck...we can't smoke in a park now.

[Twocoda]

all you have to do is get a variance...400 is a good price in comparisons to the alternatives...a meeting will be held at council regarding your issue and you will get to state your case...if no one opposes it ...your good to go ...if someone does oppose it ...youll know who it is that made the initial complaint and then you can return the favour of their property ....you have an ass in your neighborhood...

 

Good Luck

[Governator]

Green Day's "Do you know the enemy?" song comes to mind lol.

[Headhunter]

Well, I had my driveway re-paved this summer, during the municipal workers strike... we had no permit... I wonder if I am going to be receiving a bill for a permit in the mail?

HH

[ketchenany]

I wonder if I am going to be receiving a bill for a permit in the mail?

HH

 

Paint the mailbox that will confuse them

 

In the mid 70s I moved into a Mississauga neighbourhood (single family homes) in ten years the demographics changed and these single family were now two or three and the first thing that happened hedges on lawns were removed (wider driveway) and cars parked in their place; no paving! But I guess not paving got around the problem.

 

I wish someone would have enforced the bylaws if there were any back then . . . We didn't stay long.

[PAZE]

Well, I had my driveway re-paved this summer, during the municipal workers strike... we had no permit... I wonder if I am going to be receiving a bill for a permit in the mail?

HH

 

You dont need a permit to re-pave your driveway, now if you made it larger then existing, you better hope you have good neighbours that wont rat you out, or you'll be in the same boat as the original poster.

[Uncle Buck]

if someone does oppose it ...youll know who it is that made the initial complaint and then you can return the favour of their property ....you have an ass in your neighborhood...

 

my thoughts exactly... you have a disgruntled neighbor...

when we first built our shop neighbors tried everything they could...

Building is too high... 1" it actually was (on 30ft)

wanted a privacy fence (ended up neighbor was claiming more property was hers then actually was).... she lost on that...

finally they nailed us... Barking Dog/malnourished/mistreated - no word of a lie, SPCA was here 3+ times a week he understood the harasment, but in the end i got a letter of $5000 fine or jailtime (me not the dog) if he continues to Bark, he explained he had to issue the order since complaints kept coming...

 

Neighbors can be your best friends or worst enemies...