A homeowner was upset about the city's demand to tear down part of his fence after city inspectors ruled it a safety hazard.
The letter from the city was titled “Final Notice of Violation.” It gave Nick D’Amario two weeks.
D’Amario had erected a wooden fence on public property beside his corner house near Downsview Park. While North York’s community council had given him permission to build a fence, city inspectors ruled in 2010 that this one was “not built to approved plans,” caused “sight line obstructions” for drivers coming around the bend, and needed to be made smaller.
The city sent letters to D’Amario in June, July, August, and November of 2010. The community council rejected a proposal from D’Amario in June 2011. The city’s “Final Notice,” dated Oct. 13, 2011, ordered him to take down the four fence panels closest to the corner.
People pass along the offending fence on Gilley Rd., which residents banded together to have taken down because it blocked the sightlines of drivers.
The order did not turn out to be final.
Two weeks later, on Oct. 27, the top city transportation official, Gary Welsh, met with D’Amario. Welsh offered him a break: he could take down just the final panel, not all four.
The six neighbours who had complained about the fence were bewildered. The city had agreed for more than a year that the fence was a hazard. Why would officials suddenly change their minds two weeks after they issued a supposedly final order?
The city has not given the neighbours an answer, and it did not answer the Star’s questions. It appears, however, that the city’s position shifted soon after Mayor Rob Ford got involved.
D’Amario’s neighbours filed a freedom of information request. Among the emails they obtained: one sent by Welsh six days after the “Final Notice” and eight days before his meeting with D’Amario.
“I received an urgent request from the City Manager to have Transportation staff get in touch with (censored) regarding the encroachment agreement issue,” wrote Welsh, now retired. He added: “The City Manager would like staff to call today, if possible, and have a status update for him and the Mayor by tomorrow morning.”
Ford is renowned for personally returning residents’ phone calls. He regularly visits their homes, senior bureaucrats in tow, to offer assistance with even minor local disputes — such as one about a pile of sand in a man’s backyard.
The city refused to discuss the nature of Ford’s involvement in this case, and Ford’s spokesmen did not respond to emails. But neighbour Steve Tonon said city employees confided that Ford had intervened in some unspecified way.
“Basically, they would say, ‘Our hands are tied, it’s beyond my department now.’ They would tell us, ‘off the record,’ under their breath, that the mayor’s office was involved. And through the Freedom of Information Act, we saw that there was some kind of trail there,” Tonon said.
“If this is the way he wants to be a mayor, I don’t like it. It was his city (staff) that said these four panels were not safe, that this was a sight obstruction. How can a mayor come there and say, ‘There’s nothing wrong with this fence’ after the department has deemed it unsafe? If this is the way he wins votes, it’s not very democratic.”
The city manager, Joe Pennachetti, is Toronto’s chief civil servant. He earned $330,000 in 2011.
Pennachetti declined to comment. City spokeswoman Wynna Brown said Pennachetti “doesn’t recall this specific matter.”
“He is sometimes contacted directly by a resident or a member of council about operational issues. He typically refers these incidents to the appropriate division head for follow up and response,” Brown said.
The community council voted Tuesday to order D’Amario to remove the entire fence — though the neighbours had asked only to require him to take down the three panels.
D’Amario’s lawyer, Daniel Artenosi, said D’Amario was not given adequate notice of the debate, doesn’t believe the fence is dangerous, and is “very upset.” He is “considering his options,” Artenosi said.
“We have a real concern with the way the procedure played out,” he said. He added: “My client is definitely committed to addressing any public safety concerns.”
There is a parkette across from D’Amario’s house, at Keswick Rd. and Gilley Rd. Another neighbour, John Teti, said a young girl was nearly hit by a car as she crossed the street on a bicycle in April, a teenage boy on a skateboard in May, and a younger boy visiting from Italy in early June.
Councillor Maria Augimeri said Ford had put city staffers “in an untenable position.” She said she wishes “we had more members of staff who are able to show some backbone in defending the community council decision, and children’s safety.”
Artenosi said he was only hired in the past week and does not know whether D’Amario called Ford. D’Amario declined to comment.
