[rkarsk]

Hi all, I know this question is a bit in-the-weeds for this forum, but as a homeowner that's not in the development industry, navigating the permitting world is super challenging.

I bought an infill a year ago, with a short wood retaining wall along part of the front drive that was already in poor condition. Given the grade from the neighbour's driveway and where snow gets deposited form shoveling, I have major icing issues over the winter going right up to the stairs to my main entrance.

• This wall wasn't noted as an encroachment on the survey report.
• However, reaching out the city, it appears it's built on the "back of walk" (BOW) area (city property), and is therefore encroaching. What's worse is if I were to replace it with another wall, it would encroach over 3 meters, which is a pretty expensive encroachment application (over $1000).
• Sounds like I also need to get a new survey report (?) ($1000?) and then there's the cost of the concrete wall itself of $2500

... all for a wall the city will have a right to tell me to demolish with 30 days notice, just so pedestrians don't slip on 3" of ice in front of my stairs.

Hoping for some help here:

• What is a "Back of Walk" area and is there a way to see if there are any current plans for the city to utilize that land?
• Is there any way to lower the permitting costs with building this short retaining wall? Seems odd that a DP was approved with such a grading issue and now I need to pay the City to get the privilege to deal with the grading of the City's property.
• Do I do the encroachment application first, then build the wall, then get a new RPR? What's the order?
• Is there any way to meet with a human being at the city just to talk through the process? Bylaw points me to encroachments, encroachments point me to the DP file manager who is no longer there.

Sorry if this comes off as entitled, I really don't mind fronting the cost of the wall, I knew it was in bad shape when I bought the property, but the surprises re: encroachment and permitting costs and the difficult to navigate process are getting to me. Any tips or advice are super appreciated... thanks.

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PS (optional history only):
Going back to google street view, it seems like the developer even built the wall originally, which after pulling the DP, it looks like the city told them to demolish it due to the encroachment. Before being subdivided, the previous building here had a short retaining wall right up to and all along the sidewalk, in the BOW area.

 

[darwink]

it looks like the city told them to demolish it due to the encroachment

The developer likely couldn't wait a few weeks to a few months to deal with it properly, so it was easier for them to spend the money and make the outcome worse.

Too bad. We had an encroachment on our house when we bought it and it only took the City 10 days to turn around with the eventual finding of no issue.

Alas, when you get into an infinite loop of referrals, contact your city councilor's office and they'll likely be able to reset the process with a bit more consideration .

 

[MichaelS]

I can answer some of the questions, but not all of them unfortuntely, but here goes:

What you are calling "Back of walk" is also often referred to as the boulvard. This is the space within the road right-of-way from the curb to the property line. If it is a monowalk (as in, sidewalk right next to the curb), the back of walk is from the back of the sidewalk to the property line. Sometimes, if it is a seperate walk (as in, landscaping/trees between sidewalk and the curb), the back of walk is often just a minimum of 0.3m. For residential streets, there is often a shallow utiilties easement that further encroaches into the property as well. See this as the example residential cross-section from the City's design guidelines for subdivision servicing:

In terms of how to get out of the loop, and get a consistent person to talk to, I would suggest applying for "pre-application", or what is called a "pre-app":

Pre-application meetings

www.calgary.ca

I think it is free to do so, and this will assign a new planner to you, who can (at least, should) then act as a point person between all of the various internal technical groups.

 

[rkarsk]

Thanks folks, appreciate the help. I will try the pre-app process!