Hillier saves the day for Access Place couple

By Craig Westcott

The residents of a home on Access Place near the Manuels Arterial got a Christmas gift from CBS council just before the holiday when it softened its rules enough to allow common sense to prevail over the dictates of red tape.
The owners had applied to council to build a mud room on the front of their house to allow for easier access to their home for one of the livyers who has mobility issues. The problem is that the house is already located too close to the street outside, according to the Town’s development regulations.
Access Place is a short, older lane that predates construction of the CBS Bypass Road. It is tucked off Route 60, near the east side of Manuels Bridge. Because of its length and location, it gets very little traffic.
Because the property’s building line setback is already technically too shallow, staff recommended the application for an even smaller setback be rejected. But when that recommendation came forward at council’s December 2 public meeting, council voted to defer the matter for further consideration.
After that further consideration, the motion to reject the application came forward again at council’s December 16 public meeting. As the lead councillor for planning matters, councillor-at-large Rex Hillier, reluctantly, was obliged to make the motion calling for the permit’s denial. However, to his evident relief, it got no seconder.
That allowed Hillier to move an amendment to his motion which effectively overruled the staff’s recommendation and paved the way for the variance to go through. The variance effectively reduces the building line setback in this instance from the minimum 10 metres on the street to 3.5 metres.
“This is a situation where we have a couple looking to build a porch for easier access to their home,” Hillier said. “It’s on a street where’s no standard setback, there are older homes there, and newer homes, there are homes closer to the street than this one would be. It’s a dead-end street, so there’s no traffic, and the dead end becomes a pond, eventually. There’s no potential for that street to be continued on. So, I’d like to see us approve this motion for this couple.”
Hillier’s plea appeared to land right in the soft spot of Ward 3 councillor Gerard Tilley’s heart.
“I’m going to definitely support the amended recommendation,” said Tilley. “I’ve just got one question… I’m not too sure when that house was actually built. I don’t know if it was there prior to the Manuels Access Road being constructed. With the addition of the Manuels Access Road, would they have lost some of their setback?”
Hillier said Tilley raised a good point.
“Most of those properties lost land when that went through there,” Hillier said.
“And certainly, they encroached more when they upgraded the Access Road after the highway went through,” added Mayor Darrin Bent.
Councillor-at-large Joshua Barrett said he too supported Hillier’s amendment.
“With the house as of now, the setback isn’t up to code, and that’s just going to be the way it is,” Barrett said. “There’s nothing we can do; it’s a built structure, partially maybe related to some of the points that councillor Tilley just identified. So, if we’re able to accommodate this situation, I would like to see that happen.”
Ward 1 councillor Shelley Moores said she too supported the amendment. “I’d like to do whatever we can to help this couple out in this situation,” she said. “So hopefully we can get that done.”
Councillor-at-large Warrick Cluney said he also supported the amendment because of the disability issues involved. “I think we should approve it,” he said.
“I think the only way this (variance) will be an issue if we decide to build an overpass over the Access Road at some point in the future,” Mayor Bent joked, “or decide to fill in the pond for some reason.”
Put to a vote, Hillier’s amended motion to allow the variance passed unanimously.