Fire Code & Noise Violations and a Zoning 'Guru' Contact

I had a couple of conversations yesterday with Joe Luzi in bylaw enforcement and Glenn Misiurski (District Chief of Fire Prevention).

I spoke to Glenn about the Ontario Fire Code and what specifically applies to 96 Hyde and what doesn't. He was the fire guy at the meeting in October. He said that as far as he is concerned, the only two issues that currently are a concern are the open fires and the height of the cars. He said that a report has been made in October by himself and Captain Rick Lisinski, and that this yard has been put on notice and if we see any open fires to call 911 and report it. He said that if they are caught in the act of having an open fire, then they will be charged.

Same with the height of the stacked cars (no more than 3m). I asked him if we can videotape any violations and he said that he didn't see anything wrong with doing that if we are on our own property, but not to hold him to it as he is not a lawyer. He also said that charges are laid if the FIRE department catches them and rarely if ever from videotaped evidence.

I asked him about the height of the scrap heaps and he said that there is not a restriction on the height of those as they do not contain 'combustible material'. He said that this yard seems to be okay in terms of separating the combustible stuff. I brought up the previous violations, but he said that he can only speak on what is going on in the yard now, and he said that he has been down there recently and in terms of tire storage, storage and height of combustible material, they are fine. Also, because they are not considered a Tire Storage Yard (they don't keep enough tires around) the part about keeping 30 metres from vegetation would not apply.

As for noise. I asked Joe Luzi if anything can be done about general noise levels being out of hand. I asked if we would have to go through the bother of getting noise readings taken. He said absolutely NOT. He said that ANY time we are bothered by the noise/find it excessive to submit it on the logs. He said the problem with the previous logs we had filled out was that they were not specific enough in terms of what exact address was doing what act to create the noise. Now that I can see into both yards, that should not be a problem. He said that he didn't see anything wrong with videotaping it, as long as we are on our property.

Finally, I asked Joe if there is anybody that we can speak to about zoning/waiving grandfathering if we are not satisfied with the results we get from our meeting.
He said that there is a 'Zoning Guru' named Nick Britton at 416-394 2499. He said that this person is very familiar with this area and he would be able to answer all questions regarding zoning/grandfathering, and if grandfathering has been waived previously in the City and what it takes. I think he'll be getting a call.