Belleville bylaw that bans basement kitchens has homebuilder boiling

insidebelleville.com
June 27, 2016
By Stephen Petrick

A recently passed bylaw that bans the building of an additional kitchen in the basement of a new home has a local homebuilder boiling.

Mark Klemencic of Klemencic Homes Inc. had harsh words for city council during a delegation he delivered at the Monday, June 27 council meeting.

Deputations are usually polite affairs where a speaker informs council on a city project or makes a request for support. But Klemencic scolded council for passing a bylaw that prohibits a new feature that's a key selling point to the homes he's building. Plus he scolded council for the way he found out about the bylaw, which was passed by council not long after it was endorsed at a planning meeting in May.

He said he found out about the bylaw when a member of the city's building team came to a home in the new Greenhill Lane subdivision for an inspection. However, that employee didn't grant a building permit for the newly constructed home, due to the second downstairs kitchen.

"This news shocked us...The fact we learned about this from a junior employee was inappropriate and infuriating," he said.

He expressed outrage that he didn't hear about the bylaw directly from senior staff, who he met with previously several months earlier when the bylaw was being considered. Klemencic, at that time, understood that no such bylaw would come into effect, and the downstairs kitchen would be fine.

"We only found out the day after the amendment came into effect," he said. "I'm extremely disturbed that this bylaw could be implemented with little justification and in a discreet manner."

Klemencic is building homes in a new 66-unit subdivision, just east of the Quinte Sports & Wellness Centre. Of those homes, eight have the double-kitchen feature.

The second kitchen, he said, is meant to meet the evolving needs of families. Often buyers are attracted to a home where there's a second kitchen because they may be housing multiple families members, who wish to have a second downstairs living space, Klemencic said.

However, Klemencic noted the downstairs kitchen is not meant for the purpose of a separate rental unit.

The city has concerns with the double kitchen because it makes it easy for a homeowner, after receiving the building permit, to put up a second wall illegally and turn the home into a second rental unit. This complicates fire safety plans.

After a lengthy debate, council voted to receive Klemencic's deputation and forward his concerns to staff so they can be re-addressed at the July 11 council meeting.

Some councillors sided with the homebuilder. Coun. Eg Boyce said the double kitchen idea is a good one, suggesting that the city should work with the builder to ensure it's possible.

"In today's extended family, this is ideal. If you're the only one doing it in Belleville, kudos to you."

Coun. Mitch Panciuk sympathized with Klemencic, pointing out that he has homes that were built legally at the time, but he can't, at present, sell them. "This is not the way I'd like to see the city conduct business with our builders," he said.

But Belleville's Director of Engineering Rod Bovay hinted that solving this problem won't be easy for staff. He said the double kitchen issue presents the city with "huge liability - I cannot express that enough."

Coun. Jackie Denyes made it clear she wasn't opposed to revisiting the bylaw. She also asked Klemencic how the city can better address the communication breach that the homebuilder perceived.

She said the city's planning team has quarterly meetings with members of the Quinte Homebuilders' Association where issues are addressed. Somehow, this issue has yet to come up, she said.

"We go around and say, 'what's your issue? Let's write it down,'" she said. "We can't be mind readers as well. We need to know what those issues are."

This isn't the first time a member of the homebuilding community has squared off against the City of Belleville. Earlier this year, the council chamber was the sight of a spirited debate at which homebuilders asked that development fees be lowered to foster new growth in the city. Council ultimately declined to budge on development fees, with the majority voting to remain with the status quo, so not to lose revenue.