Alayne McGregor
The controversy over what will be allowed in the city right-of-way will continue, as city staff have been told to examine further changes to rules about front yard gardens.
In June, City Council passed proposed regulations on what can be planted or placed in the strip of land in your front yard abutting the sidewalk. That’s considered to be part of the city’s “right of way” for that road, and can be several metres in depth, depending on the road. (See the story in the June BUZZ.)
Most of the restrictions proposed for the Use and Care of Roads bylaw, including disallowing gardens near fire hydrants, hydro transformers, and bus stops, and forbidding any landscaping but plants, were approved.
Staff were directed to examine whether growing herbs and vegetables for food should be allowed on rights of way, with a deadline of Q2 2024. Allowing raised garden boxes – currently forbidden because they might interfere with access to buried utilities and other road maintenance – will also be examined.
In response to community complaints, council allowed Little Free Libraries (LFLs) to be installed on arterial and collector roads as well as local roads (which otherwise would have disallowed many residential streets in Centretown). They must be at least 0.5m from the road, but since they’re generally placed beside a sidewalk, this should not be a problem.
The maximum height allowed for plants will now be one metre, instead of 0.75m.
A further clarification was added: a list of plants defined as invasive species and thus prohibited from being planted in the right-of-way will be included in the bylaw. The Ontario Auditor-General says in a 2022 report that these plants include lily of the valley, Oriental bittersweet, Creeping Jenny, goutweed, Norway maple, periwinkle, spearmint, wintercreeper, and others.
The passing of the bylaw does not seem to have affected Centretown gardeners. The BUZZ saw many lovely gardens with riverstone, raised beds, sunflowers 1.5m tall, and other violations as we walked through the neighbourhood this summer.