Josée Legault on the everlasting cones
Josée Legault speaks up defending the brightly painted house but contrasting it, tiresomely, with construction cones, implying that the city is wrong to fine Koodo for turning a house into a billboard, and wrong to do road construction work.
Hardly a day goes by that a QMI columnist doesn’t clutch their head about construction around town. It gets wearisome.
Ephraim 12:54 on 2024-07-05 Permalink
The city shouldn’t have fined them… IF the house was painted already and therefore is allowed to be painted. If the city has a rule about dictating colours, those rules need to be clear. I know you can only paint if you were already painted by a certain date. But just because it’s in bad taste, doesn’t mean you can force someone to repaint. I find a lot of things in bad taste, starting with the black glass building on Place d’Armes.
The question is, is the usage of the house commercial when it’s a residence and how do you fix that? Should have house be fined for being used commercially and then converted to commercial usage with commercial tax rates and clear rules on how it can be converted back… or if it has to stay commercial.
Kate 09:04 on 2024-07-06 Permalink
I don’t know whether this CP piece clarifies any of your points, but it does reveal that the stunt was created by a Toronto agency.
DeWolf 11:35 on 2024-07-06 Permalink
@Ephraim Wasn’t the fine for unauthorized advertising? Essentially what you’d get if you put a giant billboard up on the façade of your home.
Ephraim 14:04 on 2024-07-06 Permalink
@DeWolf – Yes, but converting the house to commercial use would hurt the homeowner a lot more…. like GST/QST on the house, 5X the property tax and of course the whole run-around to try to get it rezoned back.