Areas of concern for Toronto ravine, bluff and lakefront properties

Toronto is a beautiful city, and one of the most beautiful features of this city is its network of ravines: Crothers Woods, Cedarvale, Glen Stewart, Rouge Park, and Moore Park are just a few. (Where, full disclosure, Lorne Rose completed a residential architecture project.) And, for a number of fortunate Torontonians, ravines like these serve as perfect, storybook locations to build their dream homes: there is no experience like enjoying the enchanting scenery of a ravine or a bluff or of the lake from one’s own backyard. For this reason, these properties are among the most desirable for homeowners. However, these properties are also fragile; homeowners of structures on ravine, bluff and lakefront properties are obliged to pay special attention to the steps required to preserve their integrity for current and future property owners. If you are planning a residential architecture project on one of these properties, there are some things you need to know.

Erosion

First, the bad news for you as a homeowner: erosion is a natural process which cannot be stopped entirely; moreover, if someone doesn’t know what they’re doing, it can even be accelerated through human interference.

Erosion refers to the gradual wearing away of land (rocks, sediments, and soils) by water, wind, or seepage.

Though erosion and slope instability can result from numerous factors—soil type, slope steepness, stratigraphy…—the primary threat to ravine and bluff property owners is water erosion.

Now, the good news: if you hire a residential architect with experience working on ravine or bluff properties, they will know how to sufficiently slow the erosion process to ensure the success of your project. (We’ve blogged in the past about what to look for in a residential architect.)

In addition, there are steps that you as the homeowner can take to reduce the risks associated with erosion.

Actions to Avoid: Slowing Erosion on your Ravine, Bluff or Lakeshore Property

If one is not careful or fails to do his or her due diligence, homeowners may accidentally exacerbate the erosion on their property. Here are some of the things that you can do to preserve the structural integrity of your ravine, bluff or lakeshore property.

Keep Bluffs or Ravine Slopes Free of Yard Waste and Household Garbage

When a ravine or bluff property owner litters their property’s slope with yard waste or trash, the slope suffers: the waste and the garbage kill underlying vegetation, as well as adding weight to the slope’s upper portion. This added weight can eventually result in a slide, which risks damaging the lower vegetation and bringing about greater instability. As if that weren’t enough, one may also incur a fine or prosecution under the Conservation Authorities Act for dumping without a permit.

As a responsible ravine, bluff or lakeshore property owner, you should instead compost your yard waste, leave the clippings on your lawn, or place them in a yard waste bag and include them with your curb-side garbage pickup.

Allow and Encourage Vegetation Growth along Slope Edges

The soil of a slope is held together largely by the root systems of vegetation which snake throughout it—without such a system of roots in place, the soil is fragile and unstable. For this reason, you’re encouraged to create or preserve (as the case may be) a buffer of vegetation alongside the top of your property’s bluff or valley slope.

In addition to allowing a network of supporting roots to shore up the land itself, what this buffer will also do is discourage destabilizing foot traffic: if the soil is too frequently trafficked by pedestrians, it will be disturbed, which may result in accelerated erosion and/or potentially catastrophic land slides.

Do not remove tree stumps

As noted in the last point, the soil of slopes is stabilized by the network of roots running through the ground. Tree trunks are, of course, the source of many of these roots and are, therefore, a crucial asset in binding the land. Uprooting a trunk from the slope or bluff will destabilize the soil.

Therefore, if a tree on the slope of your ravine or bluff property dies, or if it requires removal for other reasons, you should simply cut its trunk above its base, while leaving the roots undisturbed.

Divert Water Runoff from Slopes

One of the leading causes of erosion for ravines and bluffs is the presence of excessive groundwater or surface water runoff. For example, automatic lawn sprinklers will often oversaturate the ground, which can accelerate erosion through overland flow. It is far better for a ravine or lakeside property owner to manually activate sprinklers only when the soil is dry. (Additionally, if you have a pool, you mustn’t drain it into the slopes of your property, not simply because of the risk of erosion, but also because there are municipal requirements governing how you should drain your pool in Toronto; any leaks in your pool should be repaired as early as possible, to prevent leakage into the underlying soil.)

Along these same lines, ravine or bluff property owners should ensure that any rainwater that strikes their roofs also runs away from the slope of the ravine or bluff, whether that means directing it to the street or to the very bottom of the slope by means of a hose—and, if you employ the second method, the water should flow out into a collection of large stones, which will dissipate the stream’s energy and prevent the washing away of soil.

Hire a Professional with Relevant Experience

If you are building or renovating a home on unstable land, such as a ravine, bluff, or lakeside property, it behooves you to engage someone with expertise and experience in this type of work. Residential architecture projects are complex to begin with, and these geological factors only increase the level of complexity. For projects like those outlined in this post, it is important you bring in someone with a watertight (pardon the pun) knowledge of how to mitigate the effects of erosion. There are engineering challenges in this sort of work; there are also permits required from the municipal government and the relevant conservation authority; finally, you may have to consult your municipal government prior to the removal of trees on your property: hiring experts will make navigating the associated complexities so much less difficult, and is well worth the time you put in to find such an expert.

Conclusion

At Lorne Rose Architect, we have built houses on ravines and have an expert level of understanding of the unique challenges of residential architecture projects like these, from the geographical complications to the bureaucratic requirements of building on this land. We absolutely understand why a new homeowner would desire to build upon ravine, bluff or lakeshore property—done right, these houses can offer some of the most beautiful, tranquil and pleasant places to make your home. But we’re not naïve about the challenges. Building your dream home on a ravine, bluff or lakeshore property must not be undertaken in haste: do your research, be aware of the challenges, and minimize the associated risks. In doing so, you can give yourself the best chance to manage natural phenomena like erosion and enjoy the comforts of your ravine, bluff or lakeshore property home without reservation.

Categorized in: Helpful Resources