Although the municipal by-law stipulates that the driveway of a private residence on the territory of Saint-Polycarpe must not exceed six meters in width, the Municipality has realized that several hundred residences do not comply. 

"In fact, these are people who, wanting to sell their homes, called in a surveyor to carry out a certification of location. The surveyor found that their driveway did not comply with regulations. However, the situation had never been raised, not even when the house was purchased," explains Éric Lachapelle, the Municipality's Director General.

Most of the homes affected are in the heart of the village and in the Municipality's rural sector. We're talking here about homes built well before the 1970s.

The situation has, as the mayor mentioned at the last municipal council meeting, "opened a can of worms", because after verification, it turned out that hundreds of residences do not comply. 

"The by-law has been in place since 1970, and no one has seen a problem with it until now," said Jean-Yves Poirier, the town's chief magistrate. According to the mayor, more than 500 homes could be affected. In fact, the mayor confided that he himself was in an "illegal situation", despite himself, and that steps had been taken to regulate the situation.

"It's important to understand that it wasn't the municipality that wanted to initiate the whole process. A citizen who wanted to sell his house came to see us to find out what could be done, and we simply wanted to help him, as well as anyone else who might find themselves in the same situation," adds Mr. Lachapelle.

A flood of minor derogation requests

At present, the only way for homeowners to comply is to apply to the municipal council for a minor variance in order to have their oversized driveway accepted. 

As of the September 11 council meeting, 67 applications for minor variance had been submitted to council members for this issue. This number may well have doubled or even tripled since then.

"An inspector has been mandated to tour the houses. For the moment, we don't have the exact number of homes that could be affected," confirmed the Municipality's Director General.

"Right now, we're in the process of applying for minor derogations, but we're working with an urban planning specialist to find a better solution. If derogations are the only solution, then that's what we'll do," stressed the mayor at the meeting, admitting that the municipality was at fault in the matter.

A reprieve

To support its affected citizens, the municipality has decided to offer a grace period. "In fact, property owners can submit their application for a minor variance, free of charge, between now and September 30. For applications submitted after this date, the normal $500 fee will apply," says Éric Lachapelle.

The municipal director points out, however, that no fines will be issued to property owners whose driveways do not comply. "It's certain that the situation won't be resolved by September 30, but we really hope to be able to announce something at the next council meeting," he concludes.