MOOSE JAW — While city hall frowns upon residents storing personal items on municipal property, the mayor is OK with homeowners growing flowers and vegetables there while maintaining that land.
The issue of residents encroaching on municipal property arose during a recent council discussion about snow removal from the West Park subdivision. City hall removed 40 metres of snow from a drainage swale behind Hodges Crescent to open catch basins but declined to remove anymore for fear of destroying homeowners’ items, such as trampolines, trailers, or play structures.
During a media scrum afterward, reporters asked Mayor Clive Tolley whether the municipality should penalize people who encroach on city property.
“I’d like to see people clean up areas of the city that are next to their own property that happen to be … City of Moose Jaw property,” he said. “There’s many instances around the community where people have taken it upon themselves to mow the lot out back or clean things up (by picking) up the garbage and (making) things look good.
“I would hate to deter people from pitching in and helping beautify our community … ,” he added. “But certainly, in the fall, they would be advised not to leave a swing set or trampoline or vehicle on city property and then the snow comes and we have the problem like we have now.”
When asked about people planting gardens on municipal property, Tolley replied that he lives in a neighbourhood where a resident plants potatoes between his fence and the alley every year. And every year, the garden produces a voluminous amount of produce that he either consumes or donates.
“I think those kinds of things are great. … to me, in most cases, there are certain exceptions, but in most cases, I think it’s a favourable thing and something I’d encourage,” the mayor said. “We’re all about having a clean and beautiful city and producing food, so if you can make use of a little bit of space around your property (then go for it).”
If residents are unsure about planting on city property, they should call city hall, ask questions, and even seek permission, Tolley continued.
He didn’t see any problem growing vegetables on municipal property, especially since food production is changing. He pointed to inner-city neighbourhoods developing gardens to support less fortunate residents, including both Yara Community Gardens in Moose Jaw.
“They’ve been very successful. A lot of that produce gets donated to the food bank and other charities, so … I see these as positive things for the community,” Tolley added.
In a separate media scrum, city manager Jim Puffalt said that residents encroaching on city property is an issue “to some degree.” City hall doesn’t have much problem with homeowners maintaining those properties, but it becomes a problem when residents park vehicles, motorhomes, boats or trailers in irrigated areas such as parks.
“We’ve seen actually people put up garage packages on city property, and then we have to try and go around them … ,” he said. “If you do have something on public property and we do damage with regular maintenance, the city is not responsible for that because the material shouldn’t be there in the first place.”
However, city hall wants to take a reasonable approach to these issues, Puffalt continued. Many areas aren’t irrigated and are left “to the wild,” so it’s fine when residents maintain that city property or grow potatoes or peas. For example, he and some neighbours maintain a section of a berm behind their homes.
“… I’d prefer that we have an area that looks like that (maintained) and homeowners volunteer to do something like that as compared to leaving it,” he added.
