Driveway damage irks Vaughan woman

Yorkregion.com
July 9, 2015
By Tim Kelly

A local woman was stunned Wednesday morning when she saw a huge part of her driveway torn up.

“It’s just horrible, just horrible, it really is,” said Jocelyn LaStella, 37.

LaStella, who suffers from fibromyalgia and depression, couldn’t believe it when she saw construction crews ripping out the bottom end of her driveway at 218 Wallace St. Not to mention the trees she planted with husband Sam when their daughter, Talia, 7, was born.

The section of driveway has always been owned by the City of Vaughan. LaStella, who has lived in her home for 15 years, leased the section of driveway until 2007 and said she wanted to buy it then but claims the city didn’t make her an offer.

City of Vaughan officials confirmed the city does own the driveway and said LaStella did not respond to an offer to construct an alternate driveway within her property limits.

LaStella said the city wanted to charge her $6,000 to remove the dirt to build an alternate driveway so she didn’t respond to the offer.

“They’ve ripped my whole gate out, it’s all lying on the side of my house, everything’s gone,” she said Wednesday.

She believes her house will drop up to $50,000 in value because of the construction and figures she might have to spend up to $20,000 to build a walkway, steps and an alternate driveway.

“Nobody cares,” she said.

She’s also worried about the toll the extra walking to and from the parked vehicle might have on her daughter who has health issues of her own.

Talia has attention deficit disorder and broke her legs in three spots just two years ago.

“She can’t do sports and even when I bring her to Canada’s Wonderland, I have to take her in a stroller,” said LaStella.

Wallace Street, which is getting an entire construction makeover, is a dead-end street and LaStella lives at the bottom end of it.

City of Vaughan officials say the city-owned driveway is needed so service vehicles can enter and exit the street.

But that’s cold comfort for LaStella who now needs a place to park her vehicle – she’s been told to park it at the closest arena lot, about 15 minutes away, she estimates.

“I’ve been trying to get (Mayor Maurizio) Bevilacqua on the phone to talk about how crappy I’ve been treated.”