The owner of a mega-mansion in Steveston received multiple fines — $2,250 in total — after starting construction on a concrete fence along No. 2 Road.
The builder of the giant fence with seven-foot-wide concrete footings didn’t have a building permit and was ordered by the city to remove the partially built structure.
Jacky Deng with South Coast Demolition was on site Tuesday morning and pointed out the concrete footing had been cut.
An excavator will come next to remove the extra concrete, leaving behind a narrower footing for the fence. Deng estimated it will take about a week to do the demolition work.
The fence was being built in front of an 18,000-square-foot house on No. 2 Road just south of Steveston Highway in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
The fines were issued for potential damage done to trees during the unlawful construction and paving of a related driveway.
According to city spokesperson Clay Adams, the fines have been paid.
City staff issued a stop-work order on construction about three weeks ago and demolition started last week, Adams said.
The fence was being constructed as two parallel walls that would have served as a masonry planter, but this is not permitted by the zoning bylaw.
Furthermore, some “minor portions” of the concrete slab were found to be encroaching on the city’s right-of-way, Adams explained.
While no trees were removed, city staff determined the construction of the fence might have had an impact on the root system.
The construction elicited anger from people on social media and members of Richmond FarmWatch.
This mega mansion received its construction permits before Richmond restricted the size of homes in the ALR to 400 square metres (4,306 square feet) last winter.
The mansion sits on a property that is 26.6 acres in size and its property taxes, according to City of Richmond data, came to $7,746.70.
The assessed value for the lot is $347,174 and the house is assessed at $1,999,000.
