Despite opposition from a neighbour, Luiz Sousa will be able to continue his cabinet-making business from his detached garage.
The majority of council approved recommendations at Monday night’s public meeting to change a zoning bylaw to allow Sousa to continue operating his business from his garage on Community Hall Road.
The change added cabinet making, considered an industrial-skilled trade, as a permitted home occupation and also increase the size of a permitted home occupation.
Sousa had purchased the garage in order to relocate his business to the residential area, but in order to do so he promised to keep the noise down by making sure he had his doors shut. He also agreed to deal with the odorous vapours.
Sousa said he put in an air filter after neighbours complained about the smell and is using material that’s water based, not oil based, to reduce the smell.
“(My neighbours) told me ‘we know that you’re planning to build a shop and we will shut you down’,” he said. “I continued building the shop knowing that from all the information I got from the other shop that I was in that I was in my legal rights to do it.”
Not everyone supported of the plan.
Anneli Tremblay and her husband, Paul, attended the meeting and oppose the change.
The couple also live on Community Hall Road and told council that Sousa’s shop is disruptive to the neighbourhood.
Tremblay admitted that they were the only neighbours with a complaint against Sousa’s business, but argued that they were also the only ones who lived near him.
“There’s not one single thing dividing us from him,” Tremblay told council prior to the vote.
“That’s the big problem – it is totally wide open.”
Paul Tremblay said it didn’t matter if there was one item built or hundreds as it still created noise.
“What would be next if this passes? A saw mill across the street, an automotive garage on the other side of me, perhaps some wind turbines behind me,” Tremblay said. “What will happen in the future if I try to sell my house? If I have difficulty selling will the city of Thunder Bay be willing to cover the real-estate fees? He could have built his shop at the back of his property where there’s lots of room to suppress some of that noise and sight lines.”
He added that the city’s bylaws don’t appear to mean anything.
