Winnipeg city hall opens door to oversized garage built without permits

The City of Winnipeg is allowing a homeowner in a semi-rural Charleswood neighbourhood to keep an oversized garage that was built without taking out any permits.

City council's appeals committee voted Wednesday to allow a two-storey, 4,900-square-foot garage to remain on the property of Tylan Unruh, who lives in the Wilkes South neighbourhood — a low-density rectangle of southwest Winnipeg that encompasses agricultural land, light industry and large-lot residential properties.

According to a report to council authored by City of Winnipeg planner Donna Kane, Unruh built the garage without taking out a development permit or a building permit.

The garage is four times the size of a structure normally permitted on a residential lot, she wrote, adding Unruh stated in a letter he needed the extra space in order to store "vehicles, maintenance equipment and recreational assets" that include a camper, a motorhome, a six-space snowmobile trailer and a watercraft.

Darren Van Wynsberghe, who lives next door to Unruh, complained about the garage to the city.

"This is crazy, how big it is," Van Wynsberghe said in an interview at the edge of his property. "My backyard used to be like a park. Now I feel like I live in an industrial park."

Following the complaint, Unruh applied to the city for a variance that would allow his garage to remain. The property department turned him down, noting the size and height of the garage are well outside of what's permissible.

Unruh then made a successful appeal against a recommendation by Kane not to approve the garage.

An appeals committee made up of Couns. Vivian Santos (Point Douglas), Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre), Shawn Dobson (St. James) and chair Brian Mayes (St. Vital) voted 3-1 to approve the appeal. Dobson was the lone dissenting vote.

Mayes said he voted to approve the garage in order to be consistent. Other city councillors, he said, have voted to approve variances and even unpermitted structures in his ward.

"If we're concerned about the views of the neighbours in some parts of the city, maybe we should think about that in other parts of the city," Mayes said Thursday at city hall.

Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood), said he was shocked the appeals committee didn't issue a denial instead.

"The message that residents are getting from this, especially in that area, is that don't worry about a permit. You know, you can go through the processes of appeal and essentially get a slap on the hand," he said.

The appeal committee ordered Unruh to plant trees along the edge of his property. He was also subject to fines for failing to take out permits, Duncan said.