Toronto man allowed to keep ship-shaped tree house
Swansea homeowner John Alpeza appealed to the OMB after a city committee ordered him to tear the structure down.

TheStar.com
Jan. 9, 2017
David Rider

It turns out you can fight city hall, as long as you are trying to protect an elaborate ship-shaped tree house in your Toronto backyard.

Last June, a city committee ordered contractor John Alpeza to tear down the hulking $30,000 cedar playhouse he built in his Swansea yard over six years, for his boys Kristian, now 11, and Mateas, 9.

A neighbour had complained it blocked her sunlight and infringed on her privacy. The local committee of adjustment agreed, saying the treetop ship, complete with hammock, hull, ship’s wheel and captain’s bell, is too tall and covers more of the lot than is allowed by Toronto’s zoning and bylaw restrictions.

Tear it down, the city ordered, reducing one of Alpeza’s sons to tears at the end of a heated meeting.

But Alpeza refused to see his lofty cedar dream sink, so he appealed the city order to the Ontario Municipal Board, a provincial planning appeal body that is more accustomed to disputes over plans for massive condo developments.

And he won.

Last Thursday, at the end of a mediation hearing at the OMB, Alpeza, lawyers for the city and his neighbour agreed to a compromise.

Alpeza will move the tree house a little further from the property line, lower it a little less than a metre and build a two-metre fence between the structure and his neighbour’s yard.

“We’re very excited and happy that we get to keep the tree house,” Alpeza said Monday, estimating it cost him an extra $15,000 in legal fees and will cost $10,000 more for the improvements he has to make by May.

That will bring the total cost of the playhouse to about $55,000, but the owner says it is worth every penny.

“When we came home and told my boys (aged 11 and 9) they were jumping up and down screaming they were so happy and excited. I wish we had it on video.”

Alpeza and the neighbour had been to the OMB before, in 2008. That time he was prevented from building a third-storey addition on his home.

His city councillor, Sarah Doucette, said she was pleased with the tree house outcome, although she would have liked the boat to float a little lower.

“I think it’s a fair compromise,” said Doucette (Ward 13 Parkdale-High Park).

“I don’t think it sets a precedent. Normally people ask what bylaws allow them to build, and in this case a tree house went beyond that. But people won’t have to (fight city hall) if they build within the guidelines.”