The Files Are In!

We finally got our zoning certificate (PAL Review) back on Tuesday.  Mr. B.S. (the examiner) was the most rudest and crankiest man we ever had to deal with and we are so glad that we are done with him (for now)!  It wasn't a surprise that we have seven variances and so as expected, we are applying for Committee of Adjustment.  It takes about three months to get a hearing date so more waiting!  :(

Most of the variances were very minor and no one should have any objections.  The only variance that Daniel thought someone might have a problem with is our second story balcony.  He had a client in Oakville who had to fight for this feature in his house.  A neighbour didn't want them to have the balcony because they didn't want someone sitting out in their balcony and looking (spying) into their yard.  Some people will have the craziest excuse to stop you from building.

A couple of months ago, a lady in our neighbourhood knocked on our door to ask us to sign a petition to stop someone from building next to her.  At first I thought she was a grumpy old lady who just didn't want any sort of construction in the neighbourhood.  It was one of the coldest night of the winter and we were in the middle of a storm and she goes knocking door-to-door.  As she was going through the list of variances with me, my mind was drifting elsewhere.  What if we get a neighbour like her when we go to Committee?  Will they budge?  What if they make us change our entire plan?  Should I sign it or not?  But I don't want to be a BAD neighbour and stop that someone from building their dream house when I don't want someone to do the same to me.  Oh, I have such mixed feelings!  When she asked me if I own the house, I said that we were renters.  She then said that we couldn't sign the petition on our landlord's behalf.  Phew!!  I got off the hook! 

Well, I found out from my neighbour that the lady was really angry because the builders wanted to maximize the lot size and wanted to build two houses onto the lot.  These greedy developers wanted to put two townhouse looking houses onto a nice 60 ft lot so that they can make more money.  One of the houses was very close to her house and would block the sunlight coming into her house.  OK, I would be angry too.  If I had own this house, I would've sign the petition too!