Council hits a wall over development variance permit

Vernon city council hit a wall when it came down to deciding on a development variance permit for a retaining wall on a $2.5 million property at 8840 Sommerset Place.

Coun. Dalivr Nahal declared a conflict of interest because the applicant is her brother.

A variance permit is required under the city’s bylaws for retaining walls that exceed 1.2 metres in height.

City staff did not recommend the development variance permit because the applicant chose to build a larger 3.1 meter wall without proper permission.

“I’m troubled by it. It comes forward; it’s had an engineer look at it. It doesn’t meet our bylaw and yet it gets constructed,” Mayor Victor Cumming said.

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Letters of support were provided by the applicant from the adjacent properties.

City staff offered a number of suggestions for the applicant to rectify the situation including moving or resizing the window, cutting the wall to a midpoint to create a tier in the front yard, and removing the window altogether.

The applicant, Ranvir Nahal of Sunterra Custom Homes, told council they did what they could under the restraints but the wall height was unavoidable with the design in place.

“The window itself is for a gym that looks directly out to the side, and the interior wall is no more than a foot past that wall, so there is actually no where to move that window. The space between the window at the start of the wall is less than 24 inches. So the idea of the tiered wall doesn’t work with the configuration of the house,” Nahal said.

Nahal also said a window well would not suffice at the property because it would diminish the value. He also said that the wall was looked at by engineers.

“The structural engineer that designed the entire foundation has signed off on the wall itself. A geotech was hired as well for the wall. Proper drainage was put behind the wall and photographed during the process,” he said.

But the engineer’s report has not been received by the city, according to staff.

Coun. Brian Quiring said while the protocol was not followed, granting the permit seems like the necessary thing to do.

“I don’t like people that do something because they don’t want to ask for permission and then they come back and ask for forgiveness. We are here now, so that’s what happened. Should he take the wall down, ask for a variance to put the wall back up? No, I think this time I’m happy that it went this way, but I think it’s still a reasonable solution to the problem,” Quiring said.

Council ultimately voted to approve the development variance permit subject to the city receiving a report with certification from a registered professional.