General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[danbrotherston]

Enforcement maybe? If fines aren't enough to get the property owner to do something, then maybe the city/region should have to power to clear it themselves and bill the owner?

Theoretically they have this power, but they don’t seem to use it much. They hide behind process. To be fair, as with any enforcement in the justice system, there is a process; whenever any action is to be taken it has to be done in accordance with a process. But the existence of these perma-offenders suggests the enforcement authorities aren’t really doing their job.

I get the impression, however, that the process is too onerous. Really it should be enough to observe that a bunch of sidewalks in a neighbourhood are clear and dry, and then simply clear any that are impassible and bill the property owner. Take video evidence and add the bill directly onto the property tax. Magistrates should have the authority to impose additional charges if a clearly bogus appeal is lodged (not if the appeal is at least colourable, but if it’s clearly just an attempt to avoid dealing with the issue).

Or, just have the city start doing its job itself and eliminate the relevant enforcement infrastructure entirely. Really I think the above paragraph is an example of a discussion which is a waste of time; except that so many people are fixated on the notion that it’s really really important that the job be split up amongst thousands of property owners that it feels like we need to have this discussion about how enforcement should be done.

That is an interesting proposal...pro-active sidewalk enforcement drives around in plows, and plows any uncleared sidewalk immediately and bills the owner, summary offense, no grace period....while I prefer city clearing, that policy might actually have some effect.

But given council is so innundated with the complaints about the already incredibly lax standard sidewalks that a few people are being held too, that they wanted to further relax standards as opposed to increase them, in conjunction with spending more money on useless enforcement....

Yeah, I'm beyond frustrated....