THUNDER BAY -- Everyone agreed it was a nice fence.
Mayor Keith Hobbs even called the nine-footer, complete with a gate for Brian Vic's RV to fit through, a thing of beauty.
"It's the most beautiful fence I've ever seen in my life," Hobbs said.
But nice and beautiful weren't enough for the Elm Street fence to hurdle the city's six-foot fence height bylaw Monday night, as council turned down an exemption request 7-4. Vic will now have to figure out a way to reduce the fence.
Councillors were sympathetic to the cause saying if no one had complained, the fence would've been spared. Development and emergency services manager Mark Smith said complaints over fences are more common that people might think. There were 41 complaints last year alone.
Coun. Trevor Giertuga said if council allows this exemption, people will come out of the woodwork looking for exemptions on every bylaw the city has.
"I just don’t want to see us setting a huge precedent here,” he said.
Coun. Johnson said there have been people who have had to tear down garages, remove easements and all sorts of other work dismantled after they were found to run on the wrong side of the bylaw.
"We can't go back and start exempting those," she said. "I have to go with what the bylaw is at this point."
