Nature v. neighbour

Non-conforming?

Council urged to rethink rules that define maximum lawn height

How tall is the grass in your yard? How about your neighbour’s yard? Did you know that if your grass is taller than eight inches (20 centimetres) you are breaking a municipal bylaw?

It seems early in administration of the newly-amalgamated County, the force of the County’s government was put to work to develop a bylaw to restrict the height of grass and weeds. It also makes heaps of lawn and garden waste or mounds of compost a municipal infraction. According to the 2001 bylaw, offenders will receive written notice of their crime and 72 hours to remedy an unruly yard or bring the “premises into conformity.”

Failure to conform may result in the municipality undertaking the task and billing the homeowner through their property tax bill.

Fortunately the bylaw is rarely enforced— and when it is, it is as a result of a complaint. It was due to just such a complaint that East Lake’s Pierre Klein was responding to at a meeting of council last week. Klein owns about 10 acres outside Cherry Valley. In July, Klein was served notice by the municipality that his grass on one two-acre section was too long. It had received a complaint and Klein’s property had to conform to the 2001 bylaw.

Klein was a bit irritated, but quickly resigned himself to the task. That is until he encountered a monarch butterfly in his path. He hadn’t seen this species in couple of years. He turned off the mower and decided to fight a bylaw he considers to be out of step with the times and counter to the needs of the natural world around him.

“The field was alive,” said Klein. “I was effectively destroying a necessary habitat for two endangered species.

Last Tuesday he urged council to let go of the old-fashioned notion of acres of manicured lawns.

“We need to rethink how our legislation adversely affects our environment, well-meaning as it may have been when it was created,” said Klein.

Klein offered council tangible recommendations by which it could update its bylaw. First, in Klein’s view, no one ought to be required to cut more than half an acre around his or her residence. Second, if a neighbour insists that an adjacent property be kept trim, then that reach should extend just 10 feet into the adjoining property; and finally that all lands be permitted to be naturalized if the property owner so chooses.

“Our preoccupation with acres of lawns is outdated,” said Klein. “Our environment demands that we look at how we deal with the planet differently.”

Council has asked its staff to take a look at the12-year-old bylaw and prepare a report with its recommendations.