Don't like the proposed Central Frontenac Safe Properties Bylaw? It's already here.

Jeff Green | Dec 20, 2012

Central Frontenac Safe Properties Bylaw already in place

Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski emailed a response to a letter from a constituent opposing the proposed bylaw. The original letter had been copied to the News, and Gutowski hit the “reply all” button on her computer, so we got the response as well.

The comments prompted the News to seek out a copy of the original bylaw from the township.

It was passed with little fanfare in 2000, at around the time when many of the bylaws from the townships that pre-dated municipal amalgamation were being consolidated into township-wide bylaws.

In terms of some of the most controversial provisions, the new bylaw is indeed similar to the old one.

For example, the issue of grass cutting.

The existing Bylaw #2000-81 says every property in the township must be kept “neat and tidy” and free from “long grass, discarded brush and clippings, excessive weed growth, or any other condition that may promote or be susceptible to fire or infestation by weeds, rodents or other noxious conditions; timber, lumber building materials or any other type of product or material stored or kept under conditions that are unsafe, from fire or other dangerous risk or accident;”

The new draft bylaw says that the township can require that “refuse” is cleared from their land, and then says “For the purposes of this By-Law, ‘refuse’ is defined as garbage, waste, debris, long grass, brush, clippings or other material that may promote or be susceptible to fire or rodents, timber, lumber, building materials or any other type of product or material that may promote or be susceptible to fire or present a risk to safety.”

Provisions in the draft bylaw prohibiting the storage of “wrecked, dismantled, unused, unlicensed or inoperative vehicles, trailers or machinery, tools, tires, appliances, equipment or any parts thereof” are also closely mirrored in the existing bylaw, which prohibits “wrecked, dismantled, unused, unlicensed or non-restorable vehicles, trailers, machinery, tools, tires, appliances, equipment or any part thereof,”

As well, objections have been raised to the enforcement provisions in the new draft bylaw, specifically as regards permitting a bylaw officer to access private property: “Any By-Law Enforcement Officer, or any person acting on the Officer’s instructions, may at all reasonable times and upon producing proper identification, enter onto any property for the purpose of inspecting the property to determine whether there has been a contravention of this By-Law.”

Again, this provision is almost identical to one in the existing bylaw - “Any by-law enforcement officer or peace officer, or any person acting on the officer’s instructions, may at all reasonable times and upon producing proper identification, enter onto any property for the purpose of inspecting the property to determine whether there has been a contravention of this by-law.”

Provisions for setting out work orders, and if that fails to have the desired result, ordering the work to be done by contractors and then billing the property owner, as well as the fine structure in the new bylaw is also the same or similar to the existing situation.

The existing Safe Properties Bylaw is rarely enforced, and in a similar fashion to many other township regulations, enforcement is complaint-driven, as bylaw officers do not conduct inspections of properties on even a sporadic basis.

This is not expected to change under the new bylaw.

The bottom line is that those who fear the implications of the draft bylaw already have something to fear.

Under certain interpretations, hay fields, which can be described as “long grass ... that may promote or be susceptible to fire ... rodents, or other noxious conditions” are already illegal in Central Frontenac.