THUNDER BAY — Council has unanimously approved a boulevard garden and maintenance by-law for ratification at the next city council meeting.
In December, council heard a number of deputations that asked the administration to revise restrictions on planter box height limits, add further restrictions on pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, and fertilizers, and include plant support structures.
Afterwards, the city’s climate action specialist Danielle Thom was tasked with investigating whether those recommendations could be included in the bylaw over the holiday.
According to Thom, after speaking with the city's accessibility advisory committee (AAC), she concluded that shrubs could be permitted with some restrictions.
“There was no opposition to the updated version of the proposed bylaw, but members of the AAC and its built environment working group did reinforce how important it is to maintain clear sight lines within the boulevard area,” Thom said.
“Furthermore, members also stressed that any vegetation that is planted in the boulevard area changes how sound moves through the environment and therefore impacts how people living with visual or hearing impairments move through public space.
Therefore, the bylaw also sets a height limit of 1.6 metres for herbaceous plant, plants that do not have woody stems, and allow plant supports in some areas so long as they are removed in winter.
“Trellises, arbours, ladders, and stakes must be contained within garden boxes to ensure pedestrian safety, but cages and baskets can be used in all unrestricted gardening areas,” Thom said.
The bylaw also includes limits on synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides and fertilizers.
“This will enhance our environmental protection efforts while allowing participants to use organic compounds such as aged compost, mulch, and vinegar,” Thom said.
Coun. Kristen Oliver raised a concern she heard from some members of the public.
“One of the things that has been pointed out is the unfairness around the ability to plant a garden if you have a curb or don't have a curb. There are several blocks in the Westfort Ward, as an example, that don't have curbs, but people would like to have access to plant something close to the roadway, but they're excluded from this. Is there some opportunity to revisit that?” Oliver said.
Thom said that this unfairness is a misreading of the bylaw.
“We have defined that boulevard area as 1.5 metres from the paved road edge and that's whether you have a shoulder or a curve or whatnot. That road edge is always going to be there. There is no saying that we can't plant in that,” Thom said.
Mayor Ken Boshcoff asked how a boulevard garden would be distinguished from an unkept lawn.
“Those people who may not be so keen and may just use it as an excuse not to mow and say that they basically have a natural lawn, weed infested, if you will. How are we going to really differentiate between what one might call natural and the other might call not maintained?” Boshcoff asked.
Thom said that there will be mechanisms in place to tell between a natural boulevard garden and people who do not want to maintain their lawns.
For example, Thom highlighted that height restrictions are a key point in ensuring the public is maintaining their boulevards.
Another key point is that the public needs to be aware of a concept which the city is calling “nuisance litter.”
“That could be excess fruit and things on the ground, falling off bushes, or an excess of grass that's catching a bunch of debris from the road, garbage and things like that, the bylaw provides a mechanism for bylaw enforcement to come in and start a conversation with that garden owner saying, ‘Hey, what's going on here? Can we fix this?’ And if not, it gets escalated,” Thom said.
