Most often your Bylaws department will be ‘complaint-driven’. Therefore, you must be polite, organized and tenacious in all your communications. This chapter will help you become a neighbour that they want to help, rather than a loud, obnoxious voice that they ignore.
The two types of Bylaws
- Parking regulations and site maintenance, etc.
- A final piece of paper in a Staff report that summarizes all the conclusions that have been reached.
Bylaws department
The Bylaws department is likely ‘complaint-driven’, which means residents must phone/text in their complaints before Bylaws will respond. There will be a list of Bylaw policies on your City website.
- Check whether your city categorizes complaints by specific concern, such as your neighbourhood development, or else records them individually. A cumulative total of complaints about a specific issue will carry more weight with the Project Manager.
- Send a photo along with your text message to Bylaws. This gives you and your neighbours a record of what is happening nearby.
- Get a copy of every complaint your neighbours send in, so that you know the actual number of complaints.
- Become familiar with your City’s Bylaw Enforcement department and if possible, specific Bylaw Enforcement staff who can mitigate and/or resolve any ongoing issues.
- Look for a “Good Neighbour policy” which can be helpful when negotiating with your City and the developer about site maintenance, parking, etc., during construction.
- Familiarize yourself with parking policies and procedures so that you are aware what distance from a driveway entrance or an intersection is acceptable.
Example 1:
- I have made small, two-sided (approx. 4″ X 4″) laminated cards that I place on windshields of cars that have parked rudely or illegally.
- One side reads, “City of _____” Parking Bylaws “not within 3 metres of private driveways.”
- The other side reads “Please do not park here. You are creating a blind spot when we back onto ____ Road.”
Example 2:
We have a small section of curb on the other side of our driveway that’s too small for any size of vehicle, so I have made another version that reads:
- “Please do not park here. You are creating a double ‘blind spot’ for backing onto ____ Road and for seeing cars exiting _____ Manor’.
- I keep a Ziplok bag near my front door and will record the date, licence plate number, and a description of the car, to keep track of repeat offenders.
- I give vehicles one chance before I complain to Bylaws.
Other creative ideas:
- If your situation is untenable, then door cameras and car cameras provide proof of your parking situation.
- One resident used a “hunting trail” monitoring camera when their situation was becoming intolerable. Consider raising your situation’s priority by creating ‘small moments of action’ for the development.
- Have 100 friends with cars fill the neighbourhood parking spots during the Open House for the development.
- When emails and phone calls aren’t enough: on a Monday morning during the construction phase, fill all the nearby parking spots. This will make your concerns more acutely known to the Project Manager, Bylaws and City Council. When workers must spend time looking further afield for parking, it costs money and lowers profits.
By becoming aware of local bylaws, you may find just the ‘in’ you need to make them aware of their planning oversights and buy you more time in your campaign.