PARKING DOMINATES BYLAW COMPLAINTS

WEST NIAGARA MUNICIPALITIES HAVE REVEALED WHICH WERE THE MOST COMMON BYLAW COMPLAINTS LAST YEAR

West Niagara municipalities have shared their most common bylaw complaints and inquiries from 2022, with parking being the most common topic for gripes.

In Lincoln, the town's municipal law enforcement team responded to 893 calls and complaints throughout the year.

Nearly 43 per cent of bylaw complaints and inquiries were parking-related. The next highest category was clean yards, at 13 per cent.

Among others, the town received 46 noise complaints, 26 animal care and control complaints, and 18 fouling of road complaints.

The fouling of roads bylaw prohibits encumbering or imposing obstacles to vehicular or pedestrian travel, and also prohibits the fouling of any town road with any form of dirt, refuse material, snow, ice or liquid waste.

The town also received 40 complaints filed under "other," which includes firearms discharge, calls that were redirected to police, neighbour disputes, youth complaints, trespassing, and encampments of people experiencing homelessness.

According to the town, Beamsville was where most of the parking complaints and issues were focused, due to it being the largest urban area in the town.

Over to Grimsby, which had 634 complaints between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31, 2022. Those were only the issues reported through the

"report an issue" page on the website and did not include in-person or phone complaints. The complaints gathered on the website are the only reporting information that Grimsby has.

Those included 167 bylaw enforcement complaints, including election signs and noise, and 107 parking complaints.

West Lincoln also had its share of parking complaints. Although town staff were unable to provide the breakdown of bylaw complaints, director of planning Brian Treble did highlight complaints regarding clean yards and parking, especially in the area of Dennis Drive and Brandon Lane in Smithville.

"We've worked well with our counterparts in public works to implement positive changes to the areas of Dennis Drive and Brandon Lane," he said. "The township continues to evaluate and find ways to work with residents on parking issues and areas where on-street parking is a concern to visibility and the flow of traffic.

"We've been able to tackle the large number of clean yards complaints, which have ranged from having long grass, having broken down vehicles or garbage and refuse on properties. These complaints have been keeping us sharp and on our toes."

In addition, the township noticed a number of site alteration complaints on issues such as drainage, and properties that were practising non-permitted uses in their zones.

This data is useful for municipalities in order to proactively address bylaw issues. For instance, the town of Lincoln reviews the data to identify areas with recurring street parking problems, which enables the enforcement officers to patrol those areas more frequently.

The town also follows up with the re-inspection of properties identified as have recurring clean yard complaints, allowing the enforcement officers to educate and enforce the policy.

Finally, the Niagara SPCA and Humane Society, the contracted service provider for animal care and control, implemented a bike patrol unit to access public spaces to patrol, investigate and enforce the policy about animal complaints.

In Grimsby, the town created an election sign bylaw in August 2022, through feedback from residents and council.

Nicole Divok, executive

assistant to the mayor and chief administrative officer, said that town staff also use the bylaw complaint data to increase awareness around an issue through open houses

and social media posts, to create new bylaws if needed, and add issues, such as potholes, to the road plan.