Barrie’s bylaw enforcement officers will go looking for trouble.
At a recent enforcement services presentation to the community safety committee, city councillors heard they will do 25 per cent more proactive enforcement of the city’s 44-plus bylaws. This includes parking, animal control, business licensing, tree preservation, property standards, yard maintenance, and noise measured in decibels.
Minimal tolerance, longer patrol hours and set fines are also part of the plan.
The goal is to eventually change behaviour for the better.
“I believe that any type of proactive (enforcement) along with a zero or low tolerance (for bylaw infractions) will change behaviours. It does take time,” said Tammy Banting, the city’s manager of enforcement services. “We are ready to implement our 25 per cent proactive enforcement as of this year.
“(It’s) the ability to do better patrols, to focus on those items (properties) before complaints are even received…before any neighbour would even call us,” she added. “Will we be everywhere, every day all the time? That’s not possible. But it will be far better than what we had prior to.”
Barrie’s enforcement services department has, when fully staffed, 28 full-time managers and officers, another 10 who are part-time.
They average 50,000 to 70,000 matters addressed annually.
Yard maintenance, for example, averages 1,400 complaints a year, things such as high grass, an overgrowth of weeds, garbage, and debris.
“These are the types of concerns that are always in someone’s face, as they are leaving their home or entering their neighbourhood or seeing it as they drive down the road,” Banting said. “We are now in a position to dedicate more staff to proactively monitor and enforce all municipal regulations, but with a focus on yard maintenance and property standards.”
A zero- or low-tolerance approach to those flounting city bylaws also steps up enforcement.
“Most of the people that we will deal with on a daily basis aren’t generally what we would call ‘willing customers’,” Banting said. “You want everybody to abide by the standards that we (the city) put in place.
“It can’t always be done with a soft approach. Sometimes there have to be different consequences (tickets, fines)," she added.
Banting said the city will be doing a public information campaign during the next month, advising residents on some of the key regulations and that enforcement will be taking on an enhanced basis.
City councillors will see a staff report next month to make an application to the province for set fines for bylaw violations.
“Any fines that may be applied for later in March through the province would be in addition to any applicable services fees that may result in violations being found,” Banting said. “It simply provides staff with another option for enforcement.”
Patrol hours have also been increased to 7:30 a.m. until 11 p.m. since last year.
Coun. Sergio Morales had a related motion on the Feb. 15 agenda, that staff outline the additional resources required to allow city enforcement services to allocate approximately 50 per cent of municipal law enforcement and property standards officer time to proactive enforcement of city bylaws, with a specific focus on those related to yard maintenance and property standards matters.
It was deferred until the second quarter of 2024, to give enforcement services a year to collect data on how well a more proactive approach, zero to low tolerance, longer parol hours and possibly set fines work.
“We really haven’t seen the numbers so I think going ahead with another plan is actually a little bit premature,” said Deputy-Mayor Robert Thomson.
Coun. Clare Riepma said it’s better to drive compliance, rather than enforcement, with city bylaws.
“I think that is the way to go,” he said. “We really do need to move to a new system that actually improves (conditions).”
Morales also said he had no problem delaying his motion for a year.
Mayor Alex Nuttall said there’s a larger picture, too.
“I need to see real numbers as to what’s happening in the east end of Barrie, because it’s all anecdotal at this point,” he said. “What I haven’t seen is there’s this many houses, that have this many folks in (them) that were actually meant for a lesser amount of people and that translates into parking issues, garbage issues, absentee landlords, where folks aren’t having their lawns cut.
“It’s a mess,” he said. “There’s no nice way to say it.”
Again speaking about Barrie’s east end, Nuttall said there is a very basic housing problem there.
“There is way too much student housing that is not student housing,” he said. “And the result of that is it’s literally busting out onto the streets. And it’s having a negative impact on the community around it. There is an improper use of a building, in my opinion.”