City council's recent decision to deny a Development Variance Permit (DVP) to go to the next step for consideration reminds Rupertites to secure their DVP before making property modifications that breach land use regulations.
During its regular council meeting on Sept. 9, council reversed its stance on approving a DVP request from a property owner on Lotbiniere Street from going to public notification. Public notification is an initial step in considering a permit.
"This is one of those cases where the work has been done in advance of the permission to do it, and at some point we need, I think, to come to terms with how we respond to that in a definitive way that not only treats this particular instance fairly, but also puts us in a position where we can be consistent moving forward," said councillor Nick Adey.
The City has an official process for obtaining building permits, which includes inspections by city inspectors. These inspectors ensure improvements are built to code.
To make minor changes to their properties, owners must apply for a development variance permit to vary an existing land use regulation.
"Essentially, a variance is a permission to change the rule for a specific property and to obtain that permission, you first apply to council and your neighbours are notified before a decision is made," said Veronika Stewart, the city's communications manager.
This permit is usually used to modify the building's height, the size of setbacks from the property line to build a deck or garage, or other regulations in the zoning bylaw.
"Anything built before the permission is granted would be in contravention of the zoning bylaw and building bylaw," she said.
In the case of Lotbiniere Street, the city had the owner pay a double permit fee as a penalty. Myfannwy Pope, director of development services said the fine was in the range of a couple of hundred dollars.
Councillor Cunningham said a double permit fee can be irrelevant to a property owner who can easily get the modifications constructed over the weekend by a private contractor when he knows he will only be penalized with a small amount.
"This [unapproved modification] is being repeated over and over again. This is a minor one as compared to some of the ones we have passed in the past – houses infringing on setbacks, houses over the height variant and things like this and coming back to us... We've got to come up with fines that have teeth and make people think twice about doing it," said Cunningham.
Dr. Rob Buchan, city manager, responded that officers can issue the offender a municipal ticket for bylaw infractions. He asks council to order staff to bring back a report for more penalty enforcement options.
The mayor said he has individually heard from council members about this trend of people 'doing whatever they want without variance permits,' and he supports council's exploration of more robust enforcement measures to reduce these violations.
In his personal experience, he found that applying for the permit first allowed an inspector to look at his property, and that process added more than he paid to get the permit. The trained professionals offered him advice for his variations that helped him save more money in the long run.
Conversely, if someone modifies their property and applies for the permit afterward, inspectors will still go for the inspection, and if they find something not up to code, they will have the owner remove and rebuild it, said Buchan.
