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Property owners and snow removal contractors in Park Extension have been placed on notice. Their habit of taking snow from private properties and dumping it in public alleyways won’t be tolerated now that the Borough of Villeray/St-Michel/Park Extension has clarified a bylaw to make it explicitly illegal.
During the borough council’s most recent public meeting in December, the councillors took action to stop indiscriminate snow dumping, which in some cases prevents heating oil from being delivered to local homes through back alleyways.
Civic responsibility
In a spirit of mutual respect and civic responsibility, the borough is urging property owners to make sure they shovel or blow snow from their driveways and walkways onto their own territory, rather than onto the street or on the public sidewalk. Homeowners are also being told that if they rely on the services of a snow removal contractor, they must make sure the contractor dumps snow within the boundaries of their property.
For a number of years, the borough has had a bylaw in place making it illegal to push, transport or deposit by any means snow or ice from private land to the public right of way. The amendment clarifies the bylaw so as to make the prohibition on dumping in alleyways more explicit. According to the bylaw, the owner of a building, the tenant or the snow removal contractor can all be held responsible for infractions. As such, the borough can order a property owner, tenant or contractor to abide by the bylaw’s stipulations.
Contractors guilty
“People sometimes tend to hire snow removal firms, and instead of carting it away they push it,” said Park Extension city councillor Mary Deros. “First of all it damages people’s fences and it stops the oil trucks from delivering heating oil to some buildings from the back. Also in the spring, nobody wants to have a big pile of snow that melts and leaves behind a big lake of water.”
According to Deros, if somebody is going to clear the lane of snow for their personal use, they must find a way to dispose of it without causing public obstructions. In some cases, that will mean carting the snow to another place. “You cannot push it onto public property,” she said. Deros noted that most people who remove snow from their property are unlikely to come under close scrutiny for breaking the bylaw, since it was intended to curb abuses committed primarily in recent years by snow removal companies.
Parking improved
On another matter related to the removal of snow, Deros said Park Exers appear to have been heeding warnings about winter-time street parking issued by the borough. “People have been pretty good with the way they’ve been parking their cars,” she said, noting that it’s illegal to park cars perpendicular to the sidewalk, as some motorists have done in winters past when snow banks lined the curbs. “If they want to park, they have make space in the snow to park parallel and close to the sidewalk,” she said.
Image1: The Borough of Villeray/St-Michel/Park Extension wants at all cost to prevent this kind of nightmarish situation in public alleys, where someone has piled up a mountain of snow and blocked the way.
Image2: The Borough of Villeray/St-Michel/Park Extension wants at all cost to prevent this kind of nightmarish situation in public alleys, where someone has piled up a mountain of snow and blocked the way.