Amendments proposed for Encroachment, Clean Yards bylaws 

By Zachary Roman

Minor encroachments on some Caledon boulevards may soon no longer be prohibited.

Municipal staff are in the process of amending the Town's encroachment and clean yards bylaws as they relate to municipal boulevard use and maintenance.

In the Town's proposed amended bylaws, boulevard is defined as “the portion of a highway which may be paved, unpaved, grassed or landscaped with other materials, and is situated between the curb or edge of pavement and the adjacent property line on both sides of a highway.”

At Caledon Council's March 22 General Committee meeting, the Town's Building and Municipal Law Enforcement Director Mark Sraga presented on the bylaws to Council.

In his presentation, Sraga said current bylaws prohibit all encroachments on boulevards adjacent to Caledon residents' properties, which is very restrictive. Further, he said many minor encroachments have no negative impact from an operational or safety perspective and, in fact, improve streetscapes, benefiting the community.

An example of a minor encroachment would be the planting of flowers on a boulevard, or the placing of mulch or tree ring edging around boulevard trees.

In the past, due to the current encroachment bylaw, Town staff have had to tell people to remove such beautifications despite them not really being a problem, said Sraga.

Changes to the encroachment bylaw would allow Caledon residents to make these sorts of minor aesthetic improvements to boulevards adjacent to their properties, while still prohibiting anything deemed to be an operational or safety hazard. 

Those wishing to make a major encroachment will need to go through a permit process.

Site plans and a $500 fee will be required for a permit application to be reviewed by Town Operations and Engineering staff. If the permit is approved, proof of insurance, necessary security deposits and sometimes, an encroachment agreement would need to be submitted to the Town.

In speaking about the Clean Yards Bylaw as it relates to boulevards, Sraga noted most Caledon residents choose to maintain municipal boulevards adjacent to their properties, despite the lack of rules requiring them to do so.

An amendment to the Town's Clean Yards Bylaw would make it so residents would be “responsible to maintain the grass portion of boulevards that are immediately adjacent to

their property excluding rural/agricultural properties,” according to Sraga's presentation.

Town Operations staff will continue to maintain all the boulevards they already do, Sraga added.

He said the Town has had some instances where property owners, as well as property owners of vacant development properties, have not been maintaining their adjacent boulevards, leading to complaints. The amended Clean Yards Bylaw would provide the Town with a better tool to enforce that maintenance, Sraga said.

Maintaining adjacent boulevards, under the amended bylaw, would mean keeping them free of refuse and tall grass.

Councillor Lynn Kiernan asked Sraga if the Town was responsible for maintaining the adjacent boulevards in the case of a non-compliant property owner. Sraga said the Town's contractor would do that work, then the cost of it would be put back on the non-compliant property owner in their property taxes.

Kiernan said she'd been asked by Caledon residents if edible plants would be allowed to be grown on boulevards. Sraga said not all edible plants would work, since there are restrictions on height and proximity to the road and sidewalk for minor encroachment plantings.

The Town held an open house on March 3 regarding the amendment of its Encroachment and Clean Yards Bylaws. It also opened an online survey about the bylaws, which was still open as of March 23. 

According to Sraga, next steps in the bylaw amendment process include compiling results from the survey and open house. Then, a report will be brought to Caledon Council at its April 19 meeting. Should the bylaw amendments be approved, communication with residents to inform them of changes would begin.

Encroachment complaints received by the Town up until Council's decision on the bylaw amendments will be investigated.

However, no action will be taken unless there's an immediate safety issue. This is because any possible enforcement required may change based on which version of the bylaw is in effect after Council votes.