I suspect the lot owner’s mother will be living there.
Perhaps, but the OP says it’s not for an owner or tenant. You may be right or you could be wrong, but we all know what “assume” does.
Wouldn’t the owner have said he needed the chairlift for his mother who was moving in? Or maybe the whole problem here is that the owners corp is only getting half the story and we are only getting part of that.
Fundamentally, it seems this is about someone applying for a major change to common property and potentially shooting themselves in the foot by not giving sufficient detail, while the owners corp is seriously short of a by-law covering additions and alterations to common property.
And I can’t help put wonder if a chair lift might not also be handy for all those hard-to-move bits of furniture the OP mentioned.
Thanks for the link to the disability story. This issue is of nationwide concern as the laws about dicriminating against people with disabilities are Federal (although there are state laws too).