A Bloor West Village resident says the city has ordered him to tear down a unique and expensive treehouse he built in his backyard for his children years ago.
John Alpeza says he built an elaborate boat-inspired treehouse in his backyard three years ago and received no complaints from his neighbours until he decided to do a few upgrades on the structure, which is complete with swing ropes, a hull, a ship’s wheel and a hammock.
“Only after I changed the walls from pressure-treated to cedar and made it a lot nicer, a lot more expensive, that’s when the complaint was filed,” he said.
Alpeza said he then proceeded to work with the city to get the structure approved.
“They asked me to submit the paperwork so we submitted drawings about five months ago, there is a whole process involved,” he said.
Despite his efforts, he said he received a voicemail from a city official on Friday ordering him to dismantle the treehouse, which he says cost about $30,000.
“A lot of love and hard work has been put into this thing and to me this is not just a battle about a treehouse, this a battle of a right of a family to be able to live freely in your own backyard, to be able to live in peace and in privacy and to have our time to try to live a healthy lifestyle,” Alpeza told CP24 Wednesday.
“City officials are bureaucrats and don’t really understand a structure like this. They don’t have probably proper guidelines to help them deal with these kind of things. There is no policy in place to support parents or dads like me that want to do something for their kids.”
Mayor John Tory said he has asked city staff to look into the matter.
"I think what we should do is make sure what is not going on here is kind of overly zealous bureaucrats simply sort of responding because somebody phoned them," Tory told reporters at city hall Wednesday.
"As much as I admire the immense creativity, because I’ve seen a picture of the treehouse, we also do have to make sure we are mindful of safety considerations and also neighbourhood considerations. There are neighbours who live next door to that and down the street from that treehouse so I’ve certainly just asked this morning that our people have another look at it. "
He added that licensing staff are having discussions with the homeowner about how he could bring the treehouse into compliance.
"On the one hand, we have a job to do to make sure we protect public safety and to make sure we protect the overall character of the neighbourhoods but on the other hand, I hope we can do that in a way that does reflect discussion with the homeowner to accommodate those goals as opposed to sort of looking like we’re soreheads or party poopers."
