More people complained to the city of Ottawa over the summer about building codes in Rideau Vanier than in any other ward in the city, an analysis of city data shows.
Out of 221 total building code complaints made to the city between May and July of 2014, 32 came from the Rideau Vanier ward. Ward 16, River, came in second place, with 22 requests over the same period.
The data comes from the city’s collection of all completed requests through the ServiceOttawa channels. These include calls to 311, as well as requests through client service centres or on Ottawa.ca. The requests also differentiate between building code complaints and building code inquiries.
When someone calls in or notifies the city about illegal construction or demolition, unsafe building or parts of a building, as well as changing class, such as when a homeowner converts a house into a retail store, it is classified as a building code complaint, according to Donna Gray, director of Service Ottawa. Through a spokesperson, Gray said some complaints are then investigated.
“Complaints regarding an unsafe building or building element such as brick veneer or porches and balconies detaching itself from the building, or a building that has sustained damage or one that may collapse … are investigated by Building Code Services,” Gray said.
Mathieu Fleury, city councillor for Rideau-Vanier, said he thinks Rideau Vanier has a high number of complaints for one reason – the high number of conversions. Because of the ward’s proximity to the University of Ottawa, property owners in the past would buy buildings in the area and convert them for students, Fleury said.
“Those were problematic types of buildings. A lot of construction has happened over the last couple of years through that,” Fleury said.
These conversions were possible because of bylaws that allowed converted dwellings, Fleury said. Converted dwellings are buildings that originally had up to three units, and are then renovated to contain four units or more.
If a property owner wanted to convert a building this way, they could request that building permit without needing a structural planning review or public consultation.
“They would go right in to doing the work. Our issue is that these buildings were box-like structures, lot line to lot line, causing a lot more angers and issues in the community,” Fleury said.
Converted dwellings were removed as permissible from the zoning by-law in April 2014. However, the area still sees a large number of renovations and construction, which leads to a larger number of building code complaints, Fleury said.
“Vanier has seen high uptake of building permits in the past few years … there’s always work that’s ongoing. Generally, it’s … demonstrating that we are an area where there’s renewal, especially in the Vanier portion,” he said.
Fleury said he’s unsure whether the bylaw changes will lead to a reduction in building code complaints.
“We think we’ve put the right tools in place. Is it sufficient? Is it going to change? Are we going to require more enforcement because people will be doing it illegally? There’s two angles to that, for sure,” Fleury said.