1 Hydro Pole Has Utterly Ruined The View For These Toronto Homeowners

Shirley Ankenmann can't bear to look out the front window of her home in Toronto's leafy Bloor West Village anymore.

She and her husband Todd bought a million-dollar property for $156,000 over the asking price in 2012, CityNews reported.

But now they say Toronto Hydro has ruined their view after installing an electrical pole on their front lawn, which is considered public property.

"If this [pole] was here when we bought the house, I wouldn't have bought the house," Shirley told the network.

The Ankenmanns recently moved back into their home after spending months renovating the place, The Bloor West Villager reported last week.

They came back to find a pole sitting on their front lawn after it was installed in December. They have since tried to convince Toronto Hydro to move it six feet to the right, on to the property line that divides their home from their neighbours'.

Todd said they didn't know the pole was going up until the power company installed it. But Toronto Hydro said it informed area residents over a year ago that a pole "could" be placed in front of, or near their properties.

Toronto Hydro spokesperson Tori Gass told the Villager that it has been speaking with the Ankenmanns since December, and that it is "looking into what can be done to make this better."

"The placement of electrical equipment can be quite technical," she said. "It has to do with new standards in place. It has to do with the tension in the wires to ensure power will be reliable."

In the meantime, the Ankenmanns worry about what the pole will do to their property value.

"I don't even want to know," Todd told CityNews.

The couple hasn't won much sympathy on social media.

One commenter on CityNews' Facebook page said, "They should be happy they have hydro."

Another pointed out that the pole is located on a corner of their property, and that their view simply looks out to "more hydro poles."

This isn't the first time that Toronto homeowners' complaints have made the rounds on social media.

Last month, the Density Creep Neighborhood Alliance (DCNA) was criticized after one of its members expressed concern that building townhomes nearby could hurt home values.

The DCNA later apologized for those comments and said they were more concerned about developers allegedly "throw(ing) away the rule book" to build the project.