PROPERTY STANDARDS: New Richmond Hill bylaws promise faster action on garbage and uncut grass

Enforcement officers to charge cleanup costs to offender's property tax bills under new approach

First full review of property maintenance rules since 1999.

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 9, 2024
Mike Adler

If your neighbours never seem to cut their grass or there’s a vacant lot nearby strewn with garbage, you might try calling a property standards officer.

The City of Richmond Hill is trying to “modernize and simplify” its property standards, which haven’t had a full review since they were passed in 1999.

The city surveyed residents on property standards last fall. After further consultation, two new related bylaws are expected to go to Richmond Hill’s council for approval by June.

Here's what you need to know:

WHY DOES CLEANING UP A PROPERTY TAKE SO LONG?

Sixty per cent of property standards calls in 2022 or 2023 in Richmond Hill involved yard maintenance -- things like overgrown vegetation, pests, garbage or inoperative vehicles. Around 69 per cent of the survey respondents were concerned with “undesirable materials,” including garbage or debris on properties.

The city’s own enforcement officers, however, say Ontario’s Building Code Act requires a minimum 14-day appeal period (or 19 days if served by mail) before a compliance order is final and binding. And this, notes a report received by councillors last month, “results in lengthy periods of ‘non-action’” and frustrates city enforcement on issues, like removing garbage and debris, “that could otherwise be rectified quickly.”

WHAT IS THE ‘TWO-BYLAW’ APPROACH?

Other municipalities avoid this enforcement delay by having both a property standards bylaw and a “clean neighbourhoods” bylaw.

The city’s proposed Clean Neighbourhoods Bylaw enforce “simpler” property standards rules -- ones dealing with a property’s general cleanliness and appearance -- at a “more realistic” speed.

Enforcement for more complex matters, such as flooding into a neighbouring property or damage to a vacant home, would be dealt with under the revised Property Standards Bylaw.

WHAT WILL A CLEAN NEIGHBOURHOODS BYLAW LET THE CITY DO?

Such a bylaw will allow enforcement officers to write tickets and, if a work order isn’t acted on, enter the property, get someone to do the work and charge costs to the owner (along with an administrative penalty) as part of the property tax bill.

WILL THE NEW PROPERTY STANDARDS BE TOUGHER OR NOT?

Main improvements in the proposed standards, Don Guy, the city’s community standards director said in a statement, are “not necessarily about strengthening the regulation or making it more lenient, but more about making the regulations clearer and enabling additional enforcement tools that will facilitate a quicker resolution of issues.”

He added, however, that the proposed policies protecting heritage properties in Richmond Hill “have been significantly enhanced and strengthened.”