Essex couple unhappy with curb on driveway

An Essex couple said they are unhappy with the town over a curb that was installed at the end of their driveway.

Jody St. Louis-Smith said they have had a 30-plus foot driveway for over 10 years. She and her husband Rick Smith paved the driveway, which accommodated four family vehicles side by each.

Their normal changed when the town repaved the road during a reconstruction project on Irwin Avenue in Essex. The width of the driveway had been narrowed to 25 feet.

“Every time I look at it, I just, it upsets me,” said St. Louis-Smith. “It is just awful because originally they had put down a separation between my neighbors and I, and it was perfect.”

St. Louis-Smith explained when the curbs were poured, the driveway looked like it did before. However, crews returned a few days later adding five more feet of curb. The couple’s lawyer Randy Semeniuk is questioning the addition.

“The cost to the taxpayers of doing that is a question I'd like answered,” Semeniuk said.

The family says they were told the bylaw allows for 25-foot wide access to a driveway, but upon further investigation they discovered a neighbour has a 30-foot opening.

Smith went to council asking for the property to be restored to what it was but that request was turned down by a vote of 7-1.

“I've been probably here for 32 years and we've done a lot of work here. Spent a lot of money. They come in in one summer and wreck our property and now they don't want to fix it,” said Smith.

A town representative says the matter was handled at council in September in a public and transparent way and council's position was not to grant a bigger curb at the cost of the taxpayers.

“He (Smith) originally had 30 feet. Another neighbor has 30 feet. Now he's cut back (to 25 feet) so it wasn't done efficiently. It wasn't done equitably and was there any undue hardship. There is,” said Semeniuk, who is advocating for the family by offering to write a letter to the town.

He said there are others with similar complaints and suggests they pool together by hiring a lawyer to fight the matter.

“I understand that the town has already voted, but it's never too late to do the right thing. From my perspective,” he said.