'Red tape and permits': Why is Santa’s House still in Victoria Park?

The big red house was a hot topic of conversation during SunFest.

CTV News overheard multiple people asking "Why is Santa’s House still in Victoria Park?"

Well the answer may just be bureaucracy.

"We would really like to move it out of the park and move it to Covent Garden Market but we're having some red tape out right now with the city," says Leo Larizza, the founder of the TLC Foundation who runs Santa’s House.

"We bought a permit to move it in April, but unfortunately the crane guys went on strike and that slowed things down. When they returned and we were ready to move it the city said we needed a heritage permit."

Leo Larizza of the TLC Foundation who runs Santa’s House speaks to CTV News on July 13, 2022. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)The city’s communications department explains why the permit is needed.

"Because the Santa House will be a permanent structure at the Covent Garden Market, this move requires a full site plan application as well as a Heritage Alteration Permit from the owner before we can move the structure to the market," the city said in a statement.

"The City’s building division is waiting for the site plan application from the builder representing the House and the Covent Garden Market (CGM). As soon as the required applications are approved, work will begin to move the Santa House to its permanent home."

Larizza, the CGM and Ward 13 City Councillor John Fyfe-Millar were all unaware a permit were needed, or they would have got the ball rolling back in April, when the City pressured TLC to get the house out of the park.

"I'm fully expected that they're prepared to get this through as quickly as possible so we can get it over there," says Fyfe-Millar who represents the downtown ward.

Fyfe-Millar spoke with organizers of the Home County Folk Festival who plan to use the house as a vendor space this weekend. Larizza thinks that is a great idea.

"We'd like to move it tomorrow if we could, but that's not going to happen," says Larizza.

"There's a lot of moving parts when you're moving this house. There's the crane people, there's the flatbed people, there's the drywall people, there's the people to take it apart. There's electricians and we have to get all those people together, which we did. And then things fell apart when the crane operators went on strike and then we got them together again and now we're having problems with permits. So getting these people is not easy."

The worry now is that the permit can take up to 90 days for approval.

The TLC Foundation is trying to move Santa’s House to Covent Garden Market but a heritage permit is temporarily preventing the move (Source: Brent Lale/CTV London)"We needed it at the Market as soon as possible because we need to prep that area for the holiday season," says Fyfe-Millar

"I know it's going to be 30 degrees today, but we're thinking about when it's going to be five degrees in December."

If the permit takes the full 90 days, it would be around October - just weeks before the house is set to open.

"It is going to take a month to a month- and-a half to get it back to looking great," says Larizza.

"Dry walling the inside, new flooring, new carpet, painting and just a lot of work needs to get done. You know if we come to October and that house has not moved we're going to be scrambling to get it open and I don't want to do that."

That has him potentially looking at a 100 Kellogg Lane as a backup plan.

"Either we got to move it in the next two weeks, or we could have issues and we may have to find another location," says Larizza.

The TLC Foundation has raised over $500,000 for sick and terminally ill children in the region. Larizza says during this process with the city, he’s felt like giving up at times.

"The easiest thing to do would just be knock it down and, you know, just finish it and not go through all this problems that we constantly go through," says Larizza.

"That wouldn't be fair to the kids. In fact, the harder it is, the harder we should work because we are fighting for these kids."