The grass grew right over plans to have city staff investigate the feasibility of charging Barrie homeowners for not maintaining or cutting municipal boulevards lawns.
Instead of making a decision, city council referred the matter Monday to the finance and corporate services committee.
“When I see people not maintaining their lawns, that definitely gets under my skin,” said Coun. Mike McCann. “But last year we we asked our residents to give his some leeway because we’re still in a pandemic. We didn’t want to go too far down the rabbit hole in the red and we wanted to cut some costs, and so we didn’t maintain our parks.
“We’re still in the pandemic. People have lost their homes, or are on the verge of losing their homes and here’s another fist we are throwing at them, saying ‘hey, it’s going to cost you more money now (if grass on boulevards isn’t cut)’.”
Council did pass a motion that city staff investigate ways to encourage naturalized boulevard gardens to reduce the need for grass maintenance, promoting pollinator habitats, and report back.
“There are ways to ensure you don’t even have to cut the grass on your boulevard if you plant a proper naturalized garden,” said Coun. Keenan Aylwin. “We do have guidelines for non-standard boulevard treatments on the city’s website. I hope we can look at ways to encourage more boulevard gardens.”
Coun. Natalie Harris noted that this will also help reduce noise pollution, if lawnmowers are running less.
Coun. Sergio Morales said those who will let their grass grow long are unlikely to be interested in boulevard gardens, however.
East-end Coun. Clare Riepma, who proposed the motion for staff to investigate, admitted only a small percentage of boulevards are poorly maintained - but it still has an impact on residents.
“(There’s) very significant interest from the community,” he said. “We’re really pointing at maybe one per cent or maybe point-one per cent of the boulevards in the city - 99.9 per cent of the people cut them and there’s no problem. But the small number that don’t do it…it just makes the place look poor and dishevelled.
“When we get complaints, the city goes out and cuts it,” Riepma said. “So it’s the taxpayer that are paying to go out and cut the grass for somebody that isn’t doing what they morally ought to be doing. More often than not it’s a landlord who hasn’t made any arrangements, or very poor arrangements, for the cutting of the grass anyway.”
Finance and corporate services committee next meets on Sept. 14.
Riepma has said in Ward 1 that the area near Georgian College has many lawns and boulevards which are not cut regularly, if at all. Most often these homes are owned by landlords that don’t live in the area and who don’t care what their places look like, he said, which is unfair to the other residents who do look after them.
Riepma said he gets many complaints about uncut lawns and boulevards, and many residents complain to Service Barrie - which creates work for city staff at a cost to taxpayers.
The city has no bylaw about cutting grass on boulevards; complaints often mean city staff do it.
Boulevards are city-owned but it’s usually the expectation - and practice - for adjacent homeowners to look after this property, cutting the grass, picking up trash, etc.
Riepma said many municipalities - including Brampton, Toronto and Richmond Hill - have bylaws that require homeowners to cut their boulevard grass and fine them if they don’t.
His motion asked city staff to have a look at the problem and give advice on how to correct it. Riepma said he doesn’t have a set fine amount of money in mind, but thinks it should be revenue neutral and expensive enough to encourage compliance.
