Kanata Couple Suffers From ‘Complaints’ Bylaw
One “good neighbour” complaint is all it takes for the City of Ottawa Bylaw Services to come calling …
Pine Hill Estates in Kanata South is home to retirees many of whom take great pride in their homes. Some residents have landscaping to envy and some are just envious.
One particular couple spent aboutf $40,000 replacing their front lawn with maintenance-free shrubs, rocks and stone. One of their neighbours took exception to their landscape and called bylaw services to complain. Despite many homes in the area displaying similar landscaping, this couple was given notice to remove a certain portion and restore it to an acceptable form or face a hefty fine.
A short drive down the street or around the neighbourhood would have resulted in many homeowners being put on notice but this officer failed to do so. This begs the question; “Does bylaw services only respond to individual complaints?”
The officer in question could hardly miss the other homes in the community having similar landscaping but chose to ignore those. Why single out this home and not the others?
Bylaw Services cannot be particular by singling out one specific home because of an individual complaint. Either one home is targeted or all homes are. The rules should apply to everyone. Right?
Insofar as this couple is concerned, it’s unfortunate they are blessed with such a concerned neighbour.
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I see this frequently where people weaponized bylaw in their feud with neighbours.
It’s a shame that the city forces these landscaping jobs to be reverted into ugliness instead of just accepting should the city want to do something in that right of way, it’s known in advance it’s going to be disturbed.
I saw on engage Ottawa that they’re now looking to license landscapers to try to prevent landscaping on a city land. It’s effectively creating another bureaucracy with probably a dozen city staff worth 2.2 to 2.5 million a year in extra costs just to legislate landscaping
Glebe Lite never changes going on 60 years since Teron built his first homes there. Unfortunately many of them migrated to other areas of the city, cough, Stittsville because of this idiocy but bring their mores with them. Kind of like Californians moving to Austin Texas.
It’s unfortunate that there are no by-laws to protect us from next-door bullies.
Yes, bylaw generally only acts on complaints . The city owns property about 12-15 feet from the curb depending on the area. There is a new bylaw that covers what can be put on city land, then it is enforced when a complaint comes in. I believe softscape (plants) is all that is allowed up to 1 Metre high in the bylaw. Concrete, stone, brick (hardscape) is not permitted. There is a possible liability on the city if an injury claim was made, which occurred on known illegally installed hardscapes. Which taxpayers will have to pay. I prefer not to pay more taxes for injury claims against the city.