Toronto mansion owners ordered to tear down wall on their property, only a year after city approved it
CBC
The owners of a mansion in Toronto's Rosedale neighbourhood are being ordered to tear down a wall built around part of their property — only a year after the city gave them a permit to build it.
According to city records, the issue began in July 2023 when the couple, Michele and Matthew McGrath, applied to the city's transportation department for an easement to build a wall and several other features, like security gates, along their corner property's Glen Road and Whitney Avenue perimeter.
But according to Alan Preyra, a lawyer who specializes in municipal law, the home lies within a designated heritage neighbourhood. And city documents show one department issued permission to build the wall a month before preservation planners found out about it.
"The city is a hydra with many heads, and a lot of times those heads don't communicate with one another," Preyra said.
"It's very hard on citizens, especially when they follow the process as directed."
Now, the dispute is before the courts, with the homeowners asking a judge to order the city to allow the wall to stay, according to legal documents filed in August with the Superior Court of Justice. They're also asking that the city be ordered to pay their legal costs, although no dollar figures are mentioned.
"The late-breaking change caused and continues to cause significant harm to McGrath," the legal submission says. "McGrath spent significant funds building the landscape improvement," which their lawyer notes in the documents, "is in a near-finished state."
Mathew McGrath told CBC Toronto in an email the experience has been upsetting and expensive.
"As you can appreciate, this matter has been extremely stressful for myself, my wife and our family," he wrote. "This was not a case of a homeowner making renovations in contravention or defiance of City by-laws or codes. It is the opposite."
"We do not believe that it is fair for the City to change positions so late in the process."
The North Toronto Residents Association has refused comment and local councillor Dianne Saxe has not responded to requests for comment.
City staff also told CBC Toronto they couldn't comment on the project as the issue is before the courts.
City council tackled the issue at its meeting this week, but it's unclear what councillors decided to do about it as the discussion involved confidential legal documents.
The couple's plan for the project was detailed, according to a Sept. 19 letter to the city from their lawyer, Rodney Gill:
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