An overzealous use of city resources

Somebody (or two, or three, or four) in the City of Vancouver’s planning department simply has too much time on their hands, what other reason could there be for the City of Vancouver to crack down on a couple of kids and their tree house. Sam and Jack Seagrave, who are six and seven years old had their dad build them a getaway house, designed by the boys father in the shape of a pirate ship, wrapped around the cedar tree in their yard.

By all accounts the tree house is the Cadillac of all tree houses, as one would expect coming from a father who also happens to be an architect. The Seagraves had originally contacted city hall to explain their plans and inquire about any permits and were told that since a tree house is a temporary structure, then no permits were required.

In fact, while the tree house was under construction, the Seagraves were visited by no fewer than four city inspectors and engineers, none of whom said anything regarding permits or requested that the work in progress be stopped.

Now that the tree house is built, and the kids have set up show, the City of Vancouver has ordered the Seagrave family to either apply and pay for 4,000 dollars worth of permits, or tear down their recently completed tree house. It makes for a rather bizarre case of over governance, which will require a review process by the building permit department. There is no mention if the City wants a final say in what comic books the boys might wish to place in the tree house, but surely they must have a department for that as well.

The city was spurred on to action due to the complaint of a nearby neighbour. A neighbour who feels the tree house/pirate ship is edging too close to alien shores. The Vancouver Sun picked up on the story and even provided some helpful hints for other tree house designers to avoid a similar fate.

However, it shows a rather interesting set of priorities for a city with a huge homeless population, featuring a rather nasty looking downtown east side complete with questionable living accommodations. Buildings which surely could benefit from a visit from a building inspector or two, providing they could find time from the tree house patrol to take an interest.

The letters to the editor page of the Vancouver Province have been filled the last few days with outraged citizens wondering where the hell their civic government has its head at.

The best of which came from a guy in Revelstoke, who asked the following on Friday:

What’s on the files?

I think it’s proper for the city to require a survey, development plans and everything else for the tree house. After all, I am sure they have on file similar documents for all the previous tree houses built in the city.

Syd Blackwell, Revelstoke

Pretty well nails the city to the wall one would think, perhaps the Seagraves’s should contract Mr. Blackwell out as their legal defence, as he seems to have the City of Vancouver right where they deserve to be!

In the spotlight of ridicule, over a complete waste of time for all concerned.