A Ward 2 resident and the City of Orillia are in a standoff about a property encroachment issue, despite the fact the city has indefinitely postponed the planned work in the neighbourhood that precipitated the conflict.
Robert White, who lives on Esther Anne Drive, has a small retaining wall, drainage pipes, and lights on the municipal road allowance of his property.
In August 2022, the city asked him to address the issue by removing these features to make room for a new drainage ditch, which White said was part of broader water main work planned in the area.
Since then, the work planned for the neighbourhood has been postponed indefinitely, but the city has not budged on its request for the encroachment issues to be resolved, White said.
“The City of Orillia decided in their budget to postpone any development on Esther Anne Drive for at least 10 years,” White told OrilliaMatters. “After that, the reason given for the encroachment letter was it interfered with future water drainage, and they wanted to dig a larger ditch in front of our property.”
White was given until Oct. 31 to rectify the issues, which he has yet to do – for a variety of reasons.
For one, he said there are numerous encroachment issues throughout the neighbourhood, but the city has only called upon him to resolve the issues on his property.
“I’m the only one targeted in the whole subdivision,” he said.
As his property is built now, White said there are virtually no drainage issues, as he lives in one of the more elevated neighbourhoods in the city, and rain always flows down the ditch on the opposite side of the street.
White showed OrilliaMatters a video of heavy rain flowing almost exclusively towards the other side of the street and down the hill, while the existing “ditch” on his property collected minimal water.
“There has been absolutely nothing done as far as drainage maintenance in 50 years – nobody has touched a thing – so how do you justify that you need a bigger ditch when nothing's wrong?” he asked.
“If that ditch will handle anything that comes off this hill, why do we have to change it?”
White has owned his home on Esther Anne Drive since 1988.
Barring upgrades he carried out on the retaining wall, the hedge, retaining wall, and ditch came with the property as is, he said, noting they had never been an issue until recently.
“They're also saying I've got to take the hedge out,” he said. “But my argument is, it's not my hedge. I didn't put it in, and it's not on my property, so why should I take it out?”
He estimates removing these features from his property would cost thousands of dollars, and his wife, Gail, questioned why their property needs to be altered if the city’s work has been put on hold indefinitely.
“The thing is, they aren’t planning to dig ditches, so what's the big hurry of us?” she said. “If they had to dig ditches next summer … then OK, I guess we have to.”
Finally, in discussions with his lawyer, White also learned the city bylaw being used to enforce the encroachment issues was not passed until well after the retaining wall, hedge, and lights were installed on his property.
“Our lawyer got back and said, because this is a pre-existing condition, it’s not valid.”
Through the course of his issues with the city, White said he has invited Ward 2 councillors to his property to show them there are no drainage issues as it exists now.
Coun. Ralph Cipolla hopes the city and White can come to an agreement.
“I think his property… he looks after it – it's impeccable, and there's no drainage that goes down on that side of the road,” Cipolla told OrilliaMatters. “I think it's something that can be negotiated with the city. He should sit down with … staff and say, ‘Okay, I'm prepared to do this when the city wants to widen the road or put in a new ditch.’”
City staff, however, refused to provide comment for this story.
“As a matter of practice, the city does not offer public comment on ongoing legal matters and does not litigate through the media,” said the city's communications manager, Melissa Gowanlock.
