The owners of a mansion in Toronto's Rosedale neighbourhood are being ordered to tear down a wall built around part of their property — only a year after the city gave them a permit to build it.

According to city records, the issue began in July 2023 when the couple, Michele and Matthew McGrath, applied to the city's transportation department for an easement to build a wall and several other features, like security gates, along their corner property's Glen Road and Whitney Avenue perimeter.

But according to Alan Preyra, a lawyer who specializes in municipal law, the home lies within a designated heritage neighbourhood. And city documents show one department issued permission to build the wall a month before preservation planners found out about it.

"The city is a hydra with many heads,

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