Brampton monster home owner wants 3.5-metre fence
Four years after a Brampton monster home's construction was halted by the city, the towering structure is still standing. Now the owner wants a 3.5 metre tall privacy fence.

thestar.com
April 6, 2016
By San Grewal

The four-year saga of a partially built Brampton monster home, with its faded blue shell looming over the modest bungalows around it, has neighbours at their boiling point - the owner, in the midst of a legal fight with the city, now wants permission to erect a 3.5-metre fence.

“He wants a fence that’s about 11 feet high,” said Lynne Murphy, her voice swelling with anger. She lives right across the street. “My property value has dropped. Everyone around here has dropped . . . We’re just stuck.”

After the city’s committee of adjustment recently denied Ahmed Elbasiouni’s request for the fence, the matter was heard last week at an Ontario Municipal Board hearing. A decision is expected within two months.

Elbasiouni, the home’s owner, said the fence is needed because of privacy and security concerns.
Meanwhile, the latest Superior Court hearing in the case is scheduled for June, after construction of the 6,600-square-foot structure, which towers over the surrounding homes, was halted by the city in the summer of 2012. Early in 2013 the city ordered it torn down, stating the structure was bigger than bylaws allowed. City staff admitted to council that the original building permit was issued in “error.”

Elbasiouni took the matter to court to appeal the city's revocation of his permit. He has represented himself and has maintained all along that the structure is in compliance with the permit, which was based on architectural drawings that were approved and stamped by the city’s building department. He has said the dwelling will eventually be for him and members of his family.

In the summer of 2013, the court stayed the demolition order, ruling that the city had applied a “wrong” bylaw in approving the original building application.

The court instructed the city and Elbasiouni to reach an agreement within 30 days, however, the two sides began a protracted legal dispute as Elbasiouni tried to avoid demolition while the city refused alternatives.

“The city complicated this matter,” Elbasiouni wrote in an email to the Star on Monday, stating that the house is in compliance with the permit that the city issued.

He said the city has failed to provide him and the court a requested report explaining exactly how staff issued his permit in error. “This report has been delayed for three years,” he said.

A spokesperson for the city stated in an email Tuesday it is co-operating with the court and that a hearing in early June will address whether or not Elbasiouni has abided by an earlier court order that called for the house to be brought into compliance with Brampton’s bylaws.

Councillor Elaine Moore, who represents the ward, wrote in an email Monday that she remains “fully committed to supporting the neighbours and this neighbourhood.” The other area councillor, Grant Gibson, did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, the hulking blue structure remains a persistent aggravation to area residents.

“It’s been handled poorly, to say the least,” said Murphy, who along with some neighbours attended last week’s OMB hearing dealing with the fence. “One of the neighbours told the hearing that the fence would block out the sun from her property. Nothing’s progressing, that’s the problem. We’re not getting anywhere quickly.”