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Physical distancing measures have spurred more and more
residents to lace up and get their exercise walking around their
neighbourhoods. During these walks, you've probably encountered graffiti
of some kind on walls, benches and other pieces of infrastructure, but a new
bylaw set to get the thumbs-up from Council will look at tackling graffiti,
tagging and other forms of vandalism directly. Council has given the tentative green light to a “Clean
Communities Bylaw”, a new standard set to replace the Town's existing Clean
Yards and Debris Bylaws to address the current needs of an evolving community. Set for formal approval at Council later this month, the
bylaw accounts for future growth while implementing new standards on graffiti
abatement to get Aurora in line with policies that are standard across York
Region. “As part of a comprehensive review of the Town's current
bylaw legislation with the objective to modernize the Town's bylaws, staff have
identified that existing legislation is outdated and does not address current
community expectations,” said Alexander Wray, Aurora's Manager of Bylaw
Services, in a report to Council, noting that what's on the books today was
enacted in 2005. “The existing bylaws are reflective of the Town's needs when
it was approximately 35 per cent less populated; however, there are
redundancies and deficiencies between the two bylaws. “Modernization of the Town's existing bylaws allows the
municipality to remain progressive and meet the changing expectations of the
residents. It also allows the Town to prepare for future growth and
intensification while ensuring that the Town maintains its small-town charm.” A primary component of the new plan is bringing Aurora in
line with neighbouring York Region municipalities on graffiti abatement.
According to Mr. Wray, Aurora is the only municipality that does not have
formal legislation to address community-driven graffiti concerns. “Bylaw services receives minimal complaints related to
graffiti and will contact property owners to request graffiti be removed,” he
explained. “However, if the property owner is not responsive and cooperative,
Bylaw has no ability to take further action as currently there is no
legislation in place. “In addition to the implementation of graffiti standards,
the proposed Clean Communities Bylaw enhances compliance timelines and
introduces provisions for the maintenance of boulevards on all properties
throughout the Town. Maintenance of boulevards is also considered best practice
and consistent with neighbouring municipalities. The service enhancements will
require property owners to keep their properties and boulevards free of long
grass, weeds and waste. Additionally, the proposed bylaw will introduce a
minimum three-day compliance timeframe. This service enhancement will allow for
faster compliance at problem properties and ensure the community standard is
maintained in a more efficient manner.” On their first sweep of the draft bylaw ahead of formal
approval on May 26, local lawmakers said they welcomed the changes. “I am really happy we're revising some of our bylaw
here,” said Councillor Rachel Gilliland, adding she recently had a call from a
resident on keeping Aurora clean. “[Their concerns were] more aligned with
commercial properties and what kind of rules were set in place for commercial.” Councillor Gilliland received assurances from staff that
the proposed bylaw applies to all properties in Town, including commercial
buildings. While staff said the Bylaw department would respond to any
complaints, open an investigation file and take appropriate action, “proactive
enforcement” is more challenging as it depends on staff resources and
priorities. “Being proactive is very difficult, I understand that,
but having the ability to bring it to the attention of bylaw [and] register a
complaint with an address, puts that property in a bit of a high alert,” said
the Councillor. Techa van Leewen, Aurora's Director of Bylaw Services
said her department would “always seek voluntary compliance through education”
as a first approach and, if cooperation was not received, “more progressive
enforcement action” would be taken. In the case of a repeat offender, the
education step would be bypassed for enforcement. Also welcoming the proposed new legislation was Councillor
Wendy Gaertner, who singled out the anti-graffiti measures. Citing the pedestrian stairway off Yonge Street's
historic business block down to parking off Temperance Street as “graffiti
alley”, she said the proposed measures would help combat tagging in this area. “It is absolutely problematic because the walls of the
buildings belong to somebody else but the pathway is ours,” she said, seeking
assurances that if messages of hate were scrawled out on the walls the Town
would now be able to take care of it. “We would certainly, at that point, also engage York
Regional Police,” said Ms. van Leeuwen. Mayor Tom Mrakas also praised the anti-graffiti measures,
citing the graffiti abatement work of his spouse, Alison Collins-Mrakas when
she served on the 2006 – 2010 Council. “I might be a bit biased, but an excellent Councillor back in the day created a task force to look after graffiti and they did a wonderful job as a task force and actually removed quite a bit of graffiti,” said Mayor Mrakas. “I actually went out and helped remove with YRP and they had a youth come out and it was incredible how much graffiti is around Town when you actually go out and see it. I am glad this is being added to it. It is a long time coming and I am glad it is here.” By Brock Weir
Post date: 2020-05-21 14:56:56
Post date GMT: 2020-05-21 18:56:56
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