Letter from Applicant - Troy and Sue-Anne Carter

Troy and Sue-Anne Carter 8 Eaton Avenue Victoria, BC V8Z 5E1

April 13, 2020

Town of View Royal Mayor and Council 45 View Royal Avenue Victoria, BC V9A 1A6

Mayor and Council,

We are writing to request approval to begin the process of building an enclosed storage building, by requesting a variance to the building setback. It is the intention to eventually convert the storage building into a woodworking shop where Troy can carry out his hobby of building wood furniture.

The site, where the accessory building will be located, is in the southeast corner of our backyard. The structure will sit on a 6” wide existing foundation, which is on an existing 10” wide footing. The foundation was installed 15 years ago, in anticipation of a future structure, with the footing being pre-existing from a previous wall and building structure from over 20 years ago (prior to our purchase). If we were to have to move or re-pour this footing to be within current required zoning setback, it would make this project so cost inhibiting (we’ve had informal estimates of $5,000-$7000), that we would not proceed. The cost to move the footing and re-pour this foundation, less than a half metre, would be more than half the cost of the construction of our entire project. The existing footing and foundation, as surveyed already for elevation, is construction ready.

It is important to note, the rest of the accessory building will be built under height and no other variances are needed. The application was originally to be presented to the Board of Variance due to hardship. We have a corner lot, with the main house structure located on the top corner of the property. There are gas and water lines on the north side of the property, so this limits an accessory building there. We have a Sewer Easement Right of Way, in favour of the neighbour to the East (1269 Burnside Rd W). The easement diagonally bisects our entire backyard and requires a 1.8 meter setback restriction for building anything within that setback. This is the only accessory building location for us. We cannot even renovate our house to add square footage on for another room for additional space.

We have lived at 8 Eaton Avenue for 20 years now. We have raised 2 boys in this house, without renovating the original 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom 1964 house. Our youngest son has just left home in March 2020 to live on his own and this has now prompted us to look at a move out of our very small garage area (please see photos included in our submission package) and build a more suitable space to eventually work on hobby woodworking projects. (See pictures of Troy’s past project pieces built for family and friends). These are not for business purposes, but for enjoyment and hobby. We both still work full time so this is not a ‘retirement hobby’ area and won’t be for at least 12-15 years.

We’ve been in contact with both adjacent neighbours that are directly affected by this accessory building, from the idea stage of this project with emails to both of them, met with each individually at the building site to explain our plan and delivered the same letter we’ve submitted to Council as our neighbourhood engagement. We’ve yet to formally hear back from the neighbour to the south regarding our application at of the time of submitting.

For the neighbour to the south, there is a 20+ ft high dense hedge fully screening the entire building site. There is a fair amount of our property on the other side of the fence according to the survey we just had done for this project. (Please see “South Property Line” pictures submitted). We have no intention of moving our fence line in this build, disturbing any of our property on the other side of the fence line, nor do we have any intention of removing the hedge which falls fully within our property. The setback variance request will be 0.29m and 0.21m from the corners of the existing foundation (See the Site Plan submitted) on this south side.

Our neighbour to the east of us, who has the least amount of screening and the highest degree of setback request is fully in support of our application (see letter from 1269 Burnside Rd W). We have a chain link fence between our properties and again the fence line is not true to the property line, with additional property on the other side being ours. We have no intention of moving this fence line either. The setback variance request will be 0.37m and 0.46m from the corners of the existing foundation (See the Site Plan submitted) on the east side.

We have always had very respectful relationships with our neighbours and always look out for each other. We have ‘email trains’, ‘Facebook” groups, phone lists, annual neighbourhood parties and very open communication with all of our neighbours. We like to think if there ever was an issue with anything, our neighbours could come knock on our door and we would respond immediately. We’ve always been those kind of neighbours. My hope is that in asking Council for this DVP that it can be supported with confidence in knowing this.

We wish we were within the required zoning setback. We think our reputation in our neighbourhood over the past 20 years is hopefully enough to reassure Council we will always try and mitigate any concerns with our immediate neighbours and our neighbourhood at large.

Thank you for considering our application.

With kind Regards,

Troy and Sue-Anne Carter