Craig, in Calgary there are city ordinances on development, but in some city communities there are also "restrictive covenants" installed by the developer, in all lot agreements that everyone in the community must sign before a lot # address is issued to them...and believe me some of them can be very restrictive, I built all the streets& lots in Aspen Estates 15 years ago & those owners can't even build a bird house in their back yard with out neighbor's throwing a fit. These covenants can restrict the # & height of trees and shrubbery you plant in a yard. I even had to ask a lot owner to remove a mountain rock the size of a recliner chair from his back yard after a complaint from his neighbor that it was "unsightly because the birds were staining it by crapping on it"....