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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife man upset over the size of his neighbours' pile of firewood appealed to city council for help after being told by city administration that the wood could stay.

Approximately two cords of wood lie on city property between Terry and Carla Wallis's home on Haener Drive and the curb. The Wallises have been ordered to remove the wood from the property by Dec. 15 after neighbour Carl Ozyer complained to city council. - Galit Rodan/NNSL photo

Carl Ozyer, who has lived on Haener Drive in the Niven Lake subdivision for two and a half years, appeared before city council Oct. 11 to voice his concerns. Council members passed a motion and unanimously agreed to order the wood be removed by Dec. 15.

"Let's face it, this is a little bit unsightly," he said.

Ozyer complained specifically about the portion of the wood occupying the space between Carla and Terry Wallis's front lawn and the curb.

"It's sitting on the city property, which is the boulevard, where there should be either sidewalk or it should be landscaped," he said, adding that the height of the pile of wood exceeded the allowable height for a fence - 0.9 metres - and that "if somebody had built a fence that high the bylaw guys would probably be all over them."

Ozyer believes the wood also poses a safety risk to nearby children as it obstructs his view of the road from his driveway.

"I'm an adjacent homeowner," he said, "and when I back out of my driveway it presents itself as an obstacle to me. I have to just go really slow because sometimes kids, you know, go up against it and you can't see them if they're little kids, right?"

There was also an axe left near the wood pile, metres away from where a neighbourhood child is picked up by a school bus, said Ozyer. The axe had been removed by the time Ozyer appeared before council but he was still indignant over the fact that it had been left there in the first place.

"It's like, holy cow, you don't put something right next to a busy road where people walk because there's potential for harm and that's just total carelessness by an adult," he said.

Ozyer initially voiced his concerns to city administration in an e-mail sent Sept. 19. He received a "vague" e-mail back from the planning and development department stating that they did not see a need for action.

"I tell you, it's just very hard to get (the city) to do anything," said Ozyer. "It's ridiculous that we have these bylaws on the book and a method (for dealing with them) and I come screaming to try to get something done and just, you know, 'No, we find nothing to be done at this time.'"

But neighbours Terry and Carla Wallis think Ozyer is making a mountain out of a molehill.

"I've been living here five years," said Terry. "So I cut wood every fall to heat my home and it's only going to be there until it's used."

Wallis said city officials told him he could use that part of the property to suit his needs, so long as he did not build a permanent structure and could clear the portion of land if need be.

"It's a normal way of life up here," echoed Carla. "We want to make sure it still looks neat. It's tidy. It's not in anybody's way. That's why (Terry) only went to a certain length so that when (Ozyer) is driving, as he's coming out, it wouldn't impede their view."

The Wallises aren't bothered by the requirement they remove their wood from city property by Dec. 15, but they are frustrated by what they view as harassment on the part of the Ozyers, who they say angrily confronted them when Terry was chopping wood outside, and have lodged numerous complaints in the past.

The Wallises said the Ozyers took issue with where they parked their boat and with the amount of land taken up by structures they built, namely their shed and deck.

"He may have a point of always trying to keep the city in check with ensuring bylaws," said Carla, "but there's a limit to ensuring people are abiding by bylaws and safety versus harassing a neighbour consistently and doing everything you possibly can to find every little grey area they could fall in so you could file a complaint against them."

But Ozyer said he believes he is trying to uphold the standards of his neighbourhood.

"This thing then becomes a norm," he said about the Wallises' wood pile, "and then next thing you know, somebody else is doing this. I believe it detracts from the neighbourhood," he said.

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