Cleveland Ave. Photo: Gagandeep Ghuman
By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: May 3, 2014
District of Squamish threatened a downtown resident with a $1,000 a day fine, forcing him to remove three planters he had planted on district property in an attempt to beautifying the downtown neighbourhood.
“All I was trying to do was to beautify the area and make it attractive for locals and visitors who use our trail.”
Mike DiTommaso bought a home on the tail end of Cleveland Ave, just across from the Nexen Beach Trail head.
He did extensive renovations and moved in this January, but the newly renovated house stood in sharp contrast to the street outside: A pot-holed road and a barren sliver of land.
DiTommaso took matters in his own hands. Who, he thought, could object to flowers? He bought three planters and put them right across from his home, close to the Nexen Beach trail access.
His plan was to fill them with tall sunflowers; he even planned on submitting a proposal for Squamish Gardeners 2014 garden tour. People walking on the trail started commending him for the beautification efforts.
But the whole scene looked far less beautiful to bylaw officers, who told him the planters were illegal and obstructed the access to drain and weed control.
They bylaw officer was curt and left with an ominous warning: Remove the planters or face a $1,000 fine per day. The planters have since been removed, but a disappointed DiTommaso wants the district to show some heart and allow them back.
He says there is ample access and the planters pose no challenge to cleaning the ditch.
Without the planters, cars will park there and will be unable to exit safely and pose a threat to the pedestrians and the pets, he said.
“All I was trying to do was to beautify the area and make it attractive for locals and visitors who use our trail,” he added.
Since the threat of a fine, he has placed them inside the property line and now waits for councillors to support him.
The bylaw officers suggested he could seek a street use permit but also said it’s highly unlikely it would be granted based on future grading requirement and the ability to manage knotweed.
Coun. Bryan Raiser said he supports the community initiative to beautify the community. He said he was disappointed to know they were forcibly removed, but would be able to comment when he knows the other side of the story.
Coun. Ted Prior said the staff should offer some soil for the planters and work with Mike DiTommaso.
“The district must learn to be part of the community and not create us and them,” he said.
Tara Lundrigan says
That is ridiculous. This is so far from a free world, when you can’t even plant some flowers to bring some life and beauty into your own neighborhood. =(
Dave says
Council and the NEW bylaw officer should take a leaf out of the policy book of the City of Vancouver Council.
Here they allow gardens and plantings on their property verges if they are tasteful and enhancing to the view. Please take off your blinkers madam Bylaw officer…and smell the roses! Take a drive around the Point Grey Area…but then maybe money counts there.
Maria says
Where was this bylaw officer when the skate bowl under the bridge was reported and the people responsible had been caught? It took them two weeks to issue a ticket.(multiply this by all the days would have been quite some $$$$$$) WHY??? Believe it or not this group believes that they did not deserve this ticket!
As for the planters, I really did like the looks of what was done but was not aware of how it all came too.
Well I guess some can do what they want and get even encouraged to go ahead while others are punished!
David Lassmann says
Here’s an idea. How about asking for permission before you use property that doesn’t belong to you? This little tempest in a teapot could have easily been avoided.
Ted Prior says
I some what agree with Dave Lassmann above . Mike can ask for a permit and I hope he will , I will help him . The problem is that there was no one offering any support . The district policy states we must help community champions when they are doing actions that help the community. I am sure this will get worked out
Mike DiTommaso says
Thank you kindly for your messages, and thank you Ted, for your offer to help. I have decided to apply for the street use permit.
Since the release of this article, I feel there may be some community support also, and have decided to make the time for the street use application process. I would definitely appreciate any help with the planters if the permit gets approved. I feel like I have lost some planting time, and almost gave up on the seedlings for the planters.
Thanks again.
Mike
larry mclennan says
Lets see here what are the issues? For starters- a pot holed road and barren land-Mr. Di Tomasso presumably will be paying taxes (probably higher ones given that he’s recently upgraded his home).- How much of thse taxes will be spent by the District upgrading their part of Mr. DiTomasso’s neighbourhood? Cynical me expects the answer is precious little.
Second- Mr’ DiTomasso didn’t ask the District about placing the planters on District land- he should have.
Third- the bylaw officer probably could have acted as a liason to facilitate some sort of compromise between Mr. DiTomasso and the District to allow the planters to remain so long as Mr. DiTomasso and the District could arrange some sort of maintenance agreement and that the planters didn’t present some sort of inconvenince or hazard.
Given that I see Japanese Knotweed awareness signs up and down the highway; it seems to me that a couple of planters add very little to the knotweed agricultural land base. Sounds more like some off the top BS excuse and only serves to make officialdom seem more dismissive of being amenable to resolving an issue to mutual benefit.
Dave says
Actually, this is very illustrative of the humour which this town often projects to its inhabitants and the outside world.
This week we are having a public meeting which is supposed to give us input into the bylaw changes which are up coming….including Backyard Chickens, Zoning etc. Most of these have been discussed in the social media ad infinitum and countless letters have been written to Council on these issues. In spite of this, the Councillors have, likely, already decided how they will vote because many enter our local politics to further their own personal agendas, wearing their blinkers , of course.. I can easily name one or two off the top of my head…ah well!
BUT we must have the meeting to show the appearance of the serving of DEMOCRACY. Meanwhile, as an example, there are many households in this town which have backyard poultry of varying descriptions , housed in substandard coops in which the individuals exceed reasonable numbers of birds. When backyard chickens are approved which will very probably happen, will these people have to comply with the new regulations…kill the excess birds, install electric fences and beef up the coops to acceptable standards?….certainly not….Its called grandfathering. Any other course of action would be too expensive and upset too many families, some of them being quite influential.
Life goes on as usual! I will go to the meeting to exercise my rights 🙂