A South Burnaby homeowner claims the city is coming down on her over some previously approved landscaping on her property, but the city argues that the homeowner is encroaching on public property.
Last August, Louise Leblanc, who lives on Clinton Street, hired a landscaping company to do extensive work to the front of her property, including installing two large, stone pillars at the top of her driveway. However, city engineers have sent several letters to Leblanc since October, ordering the pillars to be moved back from the curb.
“They said that the pillars that we put to delineate the start of the driveway…had to be moved because the city would be putting in sidewalks at some point,” said Leblanc.
While the city widened the road by three feet when it recently installed curbs on both sides of the street, Leblanc said her husband, a civil engineer, checked with the city’s engineering department and were told it was still too narrow for sidewalks.
“My argument with the city was that sidewalks wouldn’t be going in, but they said (they were) looking 30 years down the road. There’s always a possibility, I’m not going to deny that, but we would be more than willing to move the pillars at that time and we’ll sign something making us liable for doing so.”
However, Leon Gous, Burnaby’s director of engineering, said that even though sidewalks have not been paved on Clinton, the front of the lots are public property and are meant to be used for pedestrians to walk on.
“We have a boulevard for a reason – it’s partly for public access if there’s sidewalks,” he said, noting that he’s received about five complaints from neighbours about the pillars. “If there isn’t, then you can still walk along it.
“The two stone pillars…they’ve put right up to the curb and built rock walls up to them, so basically they’ve blocked off the public sidewalk.”
According to Gous, Leblanc would have to move the pillars about four metres back – the distance from the curb to her property line – as well as shorten one of the rock walls. Otherwise, the city may remove the pillars and bill the work to Leblanc.
He likened it to people putting election signs on public property.
“We will remove them and you can come fetch them – they remain your property, but they’re not allowed to be on public property,” he said.
Leblanc maintains that the pillars are part of the driveway, which is considered a private access road to private property rather than public property. She said she feels like she’s being singled out by the city as she’s seen other nearby residences with landscaping work up to the curb.
“We have other properties that have landscapes all the way up to the street – not only on our street but in the surrounding neighbourhood.”
Leblanc noted she and her husband are willing to compromise with the city, saying, “I’m sure we can come to an agreement that isn’t, ‘Take everything out.’”
Gous acknowledged that engineers have had “a bit of a back-and-forth” with the Leblancs, and said the city is trying to give them one last chance before workers are sent in to move the pillars.
“It’s unfortunate – we never want to get to that position, which is why we go to a lot of trouble working with people,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s going to cost them money to move these rocks, but it’ll cost them more if I remove them and they have to go reinstall them.”
