Don’t let the grass, not to mention weeds, grow too tall.
Barrie councillors approved a motion Wednesday night to apply to the province for set fines — with a maximum of $1,000 — for breaking the city’s yard maintenance bylaw.
“This is something to me that looks very tangible, that puts a levy on those who are not going to keep their property inside the standards that are outlined by the city,” said Mayor Alex Nuttall. “It puts quite a hefty fine if needed.
“No matter what is the law in the city, if it’s not enforced it doesn’t really mean anything,” he added. “This I think is a good step forward.”
By the authority of the Municipal Act, the yard maintenance bylaw is designed to address minimum standards to regulate the exterior of a property — including long grass and weeds, garbage and debris, and inoperable vehicles — as well as public and occupant safety.
But Nuttall said he wished the yard maintenance motion had gone a little further.
“I was hoping … that maybe there would be something similar for parking on lawns and those types of offences, because quite frankly they’re offensive,” he said. “But secondly, they really do run with the same spirit of what’s being proposed and hopefully approved in terms of the yard maintenance bylaw.”
But city staff told Nuttall parking on front lawns is a zoning-bylaw matter, as an improper use of that land.
“Ultimately, it is a property use issue. It’s not parking … on the side of the road, or in a parking lot. This is the misuse of a property, which is generally a zoning matter,” said Tammy Banting, the city’s manager of enforcement services. “So it’s not as easy to just change a bylaw to necessarily say now we’re going to issue a parking ticket, for example, on that property related to the actual use of the land.
“We have started up that research … but it’s not quite as easy as we would just amend our traffic bylaw and put in a parking offence, because it falls under different issues," she added.
And Michelle Banfield, the city’s director of development services, said it’s difficult to enforce with the zoning byla,w too. Zoning-bylaw enforcement is done by Banfield’s zoning inspectors.
“If there is a car found there (parked on a lawn), you get a letter and a warning, but … zoning enforcement goes to the property owner, not necessarily the car owner,” she said. “It’s hard. They move cars, then it’s gone and so it definitely is challenging to enforce.”
Ward 1 Coun. Clare Riepma said cars parked on the grass is an ongoing problem.
“If you could see the list of emails that have flowed around that very subject about parking on the grass, we’d fill a couple of books,” he said.
The application for set fines ranging from $100 to $1,000, based on the nature of the yard maintenance bylaw offence, would be to the Ministry of the Attorney General.
Jason Forgrave, the city’s supervisor of enforcement services, said Barrie’s yard maintenance bylaw doesn’t have set fines for violations, as it’s now written. The maximum permitted under the Provincial Offences Act for a set fine is $1,000.
Forgave said there are now a set of administrative fees that may be assessed to the property’s registered owner for inspections associated with a complaint that range from $116 to $584.45.
The motion councillors passed last night includes other measures to strengthen the yard maintenance bylaw, such as reducing the time required to comply to grass cutting requirements, from 12 to five days.
Exempt from the bylaw would be yards and gardens intended to promote naturalization, pollination or rejuvenation.
City staff say the yard maintenance bylaw generally allows for quicker enforcement and compliance than Barrie’s property standards bylaw, as there’s no requirement for an appeal process and no need for staff to attend court unless a bylaw enforcement officer is required to swear to information against a landowner.
If there’s no compliance, the officer has the ability to hire a contractor to clean up the property and invoice the registered property owner for costs incurred by the city. This process has proven successful in obtaining compliance, staff say.
When a property has received two or more complaints for similar offences, staff will generally move to the notice process.
The recommendation to obtain set fines is to assist city staff with enhanced enforcement and increase compliance associated with yard maintenance violations created by the lessee, tenant or occupant of a property by imposing immediate penalties.
Enforcement of the yard maintenance bylaw is essential to ensure a minimum standard for quality of life for Barrie residents, according to city staff. When standards are enforced, the overall aesthetics of the community are improved and the safety and security of the residents improve. When properties are not maintained to a minimum standard, the community as a whole suffers.
Changes to the yard maintenance bylaw and the application for set fines could be considered for final approval by city council at its March 29 meeting.
