It was a stop-gap measure.
Shortly thereafter, the city decided the only way to deal with all these illegal granny suites was to introduce a $3,000 non-refundable application fee, have both the offenders apply without prejudice with legitimate applicants, and then purchase whatever permits were necessary to fulfil the bylaw’s demands.
Trouble is, many of those suites — much like the one on Green Bank — were not built to accommodate family, but built by absentee landlords as recession-driven investments to bring in additional income.
‘OUR HOME’
“How can I possibly be lumped in with that bunch?” asks Newton. “I am simply living in a house that I have always owned with my son.
“There are no outsiders living here. There is no extra income being earned. And there are no plans to sell.
“This is our home, a family home, and with no one living here who is not family.”
According to the bylaw officer, the only way John and Loretta Newton can appease the bureaucrats is to punch a hole through their kitchen to achieve access to the main house — thereby removing the obstacle of having separate living quarters — or remove their stove to negate the definition of a fully functional apartment. Or, he can roll the dice, write a cheque to the city for $3,000 — a non-refundable $3,000, remember — and see what happens with his application.
“The application is a gamble,” says Newton. “And I don’t have $3,000 to waste on a gamble, especially when we have been living peacefully in this little apartment, and without a problem, since 2002.
“The bylaw officer told me that, if I wanted to stay here, get rid of the stove and cook outside.
“And maybe I will,” he says. “Come winter, I will buy a couple of snowmobile suits for my wife and myself.
“And put the outdoor cook stove right outside the door.”
All this gamesmanship does not sit well with Susan Eng, vice-president of CARP, an advocacy group for people over 50. “Granny suites allow people to stay connected with their parents and other older relatives,” says Eng. “They are not only important to providing affordable housing, but also facilitate informal caregiving that allows older Canadians to stay in their homes as they age.
“Ensuring that the suites are safe and building code compliant is legitimate, of course, but the high cost and heavy-handedness (in Cambridge) seems misplaced,” she says.
Newton’s persistence in fighting the system, however, is not making many high-level friends at city hall.
He recently received a rather terse e-mail from Mayor Doug Craig, for example, that reads as follows:
“Mr. Newton: I do not wish to hear any more nonsense from you. (Signed) Mayor Craig.”
