COTE-ST-LUC – It may be too early to start talking about winter but some residents in Côte St-Luc are already thinking of the different obstacles they’ll have to go through when the first snowflakes hit the ground.
For Jay Rubinstein, the falling leaves are an impending reminder that winter – all the pains that come with it – is just around the corner.
“The car is piled high with snow. I’m talking two feet of snow and for me to clean it with a broom,” he said.
“I can’t do it, the doctor won’t permit me.”
Rubinstein is 80 years-old and recently suffered a heart attack.
He believes his shovelling days are over and putting up a temporary carport in his driveway would be a big help.
The problem is, in Côte St-Luc, a bylaw forbids residents with garages to have “tempos.”
“We can’t get out of this driveway is what’s killing us, so we figured that a tempo would do the job but the city will not make an exemption.”
Côte St-Luc Mayor, Anthony Housefather, told Global News that the fight with Rubinstein has been going on for the past seven years.
“We’ve tried to see if legally there’s a way to give exemptions to people based on their health situation, their age, a certificate from a doctor but unfortunately, when it comes to zoning bylaws it can only go based on the dwelling,” Housefather said.
The reason for banning tempos he explained is because it “devalues properties, makes the city look ugly in the winter and most of our residents absolutely don’t want to allow them in Côte St-Luc.”
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Local resident David Levine agrees. He said that tempos are an eye-sore, noting that they look like, “pieces of rags hanging on the street all over Côte St-Luc, I don’t think it’s right. You have a garage, put your car in the garage.”
On the other hand, some neighbours, like Harvey Guttman, would actually prefer covering their driveways.
“I have three cars parked outside, so the gardeners can’t get into the driveway, which means I have to shovel it. If I had tempo I wouldn’t have a problem like that.”
Housefather says changing the bylaw is out of the question but the city is looking into ways to accommodate Rubinstein and other seniors in his position.
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