The owner of a home with a potentially dangerous hedge in its yard has 30 days to trim the shrub or else the city will do it at the home owner’s expense.
The order is part of a remedial action plan the city first used this October and which proved to be effective; several property owners who received remedial action notices cleaned up their properties to avoid being billed by the city.
This time around the city has its eye on two properties – one on Hilchey Road and one on Alder Street.
The owner of 397 Hilchey has been ordered to cut back a hedge on the corner of Alder and Hilchey which is blocking the view of motorists in the intersection.
“This property is a corner lot that has been identified as having vegetation encroaching within the zone described in the bylaw as required to be kept clear of visual obstruction,” said Karl Read, the city’s bylaw enforcement officer, in a report to council. “The purpose of this provision of the bylaw is to enhance safety for traffic at intersections. The property has been in breach for some time and while no imminent hazard is identified, there remains the need to lower the risk associated with obstructed visibility.”
Read said a letter was sent to the property owner on Oct. 15 asking the owner to trim the hedge, however the owner wrote back saying “she does not intend to prune her hedge until possibly next year.”
Council also approved remedial action notice to a property owner at 2767 South Alder Street, just across from Bowen Drive.
“This empty lot has been left to grow wild for some time,” Read said. “It is overgrown with blackberry, broom, weeds, alder and long grasses.”
The city became aware of the property after someone filed a complaint on Oct. 10. The city subsequently sent a letter to the owner on Oct. 17 requesting the property be brought into compliance.
However, no work has been done and the city is requesting overgrown blackberry, broom, weeds, alder and long grasses be removed from the property and from the boulevard in front of the lot.
Both the Alder and Hilchey property owners have 30 days to clean up their properties or the city will have the work done and recover the costs from the property owner.
The properties are two out of a list of 17 since mid-October that the city asked owners to have cleaned up.
All the others did the work the city required to bring their property into compliance.
In early October, remedial action notices were also issued for homes on 7th and 8th Avenues, and for five vacant lots on Oribi Drive.