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“We know what the value of a parking spot is, especially as you get closer into the core. People sell them like commodities now in the city,” Mr. Charters said, noting each parking spot can add about $50,000 in value to a home. His firm has not filed an appeal, but is banking on a repeal of the legislation amid public backlash.

“Where it becomes a problem on the developer’s side is on the marketability and the sale of a house itself, because you can only list it as having one parking space when in fact you may have two or three,” Mr. Charters said.

The driveway section is not the only portion of the city’s new harmonized bylaw that has sparked opposition; lawyer Calvin Lantz, who represents about three dozen appellants, says appeals are coming “from all angles,” including contentious changes to zoning permissions and new zoning requirements.

Mr. Ross, the former planning commissioner, highlights other sections that have sparked appeals. In certain areas, zoning for places of worship has been revoked, meaning a church hoping to build an addition may be forced to wade through bureaucratic red tape, only to end up at the OMB. There are new rules about how much of your lot can be used for a swimming pool. In addition, large swaths of the city are exempted from the harmonized bylaw, making some feel as though they have been unfairly targeted, he said.

“There’s more holes than there is bylaw,” Mr. Ross said. “[Y]ou have the worst of all worlds and no effort at reform.”