City wants to encourage more backyard tree growth, which could be hampered by pools

If you’re putting together plans for a backyard pool in Toronto right now — and according to urban planners and pool builders, this is the time of year to be doing it — you may be in for a nasty surprise.

The city is contemplating changes that could make it much more difficult and expensive to install a backyard swimming pool.

A new report, made to the city’s planning and housing committee Jan. 22, suggests measures homeowners can take to protect and enhance backyard trees, but those measures include strict new limits on swimming pools.

“It essentially makes pools illegal on many, many lots across the city,” said Etobicoke Centre Coun. Stephen Holyday. “In many ways, this reports put trees before people.”

According to current city rules, only 50 per cent of every backyard in Toronto is permitted to contain “hard landscaping” such like decks and backyard sheds, which do not absorb water. Pools are exempt because they’re considered to be soft, water-permeable landscaping.

But under the proposed changes to the city’s official plan, they’ll lose that exemption, meaning homeowners who want to install a pool will need to go to the local committee of adjustment and request what’s known as a minor variance.

That’s an expensive, risky process, according to urban planner Sean Galbraith of Sean Galbraith and Associates.

Most homeowners will need to hire a professional planner to appear on their behalf at the committee, which he estimates will cost $6,000 to $8,000. Even then, there’s no guarantee of success, he said.

“You’re adding risk because the committee could just say no,” he said.

City staff said in an email to CBC Toronto the changes will help backyard trees thrive.

Pools could injure trees, staff say

“Pools…may result in the need to injure existing trees and conflict with root zones in a way that precludes the planting of new trees,” the email says.

But Galbraith maintains there are ways to help grow the urban tree canopy without changing how people use their backyards.

“We can plant more trees,” he says. “We haven’t run out of seeds.”

The new rules include both in-ground and above-ground pools.

There are currently about 20,000 to 40,000 pools in Toronto, according to Jessie Schulz, head of the Toronto branch of the Pool and Hot Tube Council of Canada. But he says it’s unclear how many pools are built in the city each year or how many permit applications are currently pending.

Although there are no special pool permits needed in Toronto, homeowners must apply for a building permit for the fence that’s required around any swimming pool.

Peter Brown, owner of BonaVista Pools, said he installs about 18 pools a year in Toronto and is concerned about the future of his business.

He said at a minimum cost of $75,000 to install a backyard pool, some homeowners may decide the extra cost of applying for a minor variance, which he estimates at about $7,000, will prove to be too much.

“This will make for some difficult conversations with my clients,” he says. “Some people will no longer be able to afford a pool.”

Galbraith agrees the new measure will mean homeowners may need to look for alternatives.

He predicts that in order to keep a new pool within a backyard’s 50 per cent hard cover limit, homeowners will either need to drastically reduce the size of their new pool, or choose a pool over other hard landscape options, like a deck, or a backyard shed.

“I think it’s creeping toward a bit of a ban on backyard pools,” he says.

Source: CBS Canada