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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCD-32-94 Addendum UNFINISHED BUSINESS THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON XXft�l � " �C��xxx REPORT Meeting: General Purpose and Administration Committee File# �Cap' Date: Monday, November 21, 1994 Res. # L 1`1 �k `� By-Law# Report#:_ ADDJ9D1 M_TQe REPORT CD-32-94 Subject: SNOW REMOVAL FROM MUNICIPAL SIDEWALKS Recommendations: It is respectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee recommend to Council the following: 1. THAT Report CD-32-94 be lifted from the Table; 2 . THAT Addendum to Report CD-32-94 be received; 3 . THAT Report CD-32-94 be received; 4 . THAT the remaining outstanding bills for snow clearing services be processed for payment; and 5. THAT the interested parties be advised of Council 's decision. REPORT: At a meeting held on July 18, 1994, Council passed Resolution #GPA- 486-94 which stated as follows: "THAT Report CD-32-94 be tabled to allow for Staff to poll the area municipalities within the Regional Municipality of Durham to determine how they handle snow removal from municipal sidewalks. " When the original research was done for the report which accompanied the proposal for By-law 93-144, staff canvassed several municipalities . 1201 RECYCLEI APIER PAPER RECYCLE THIS LS PR-DOD RECYCLED PAPER ADDENDUM TO REPORT CD-32-94 - 2 - NOVEMBER 21, 1994 This process was repeated on November 7th and 8th, 1994 . In all, staff have spoken to the following municipalities: Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Pickering, Uxbridge, Cobourg, Port Hope, Lindsay, Peterborough, Ottawa, Toronto, East York, Barrie, Waterloo, London, St. Catherines and Kingston. Briefly, the procedures of the other area municipalities can be summarized as follows: OSHAWA Current policy requires Public Works staff to patrol the downtown corridor and three (3) specified outlying areas of high pedestrian traffic (Oshawa General Hospital and two commercial areas) . In addition to this, Public Works staff issue a 24 hour notice in the residential areas and, at the end of 24 hours, the property is re- inspected, and if the work has not been done, a contractor is called to clear the walk and the owner is billed. In other commercial areas there is no warning given. WHITBY The Town clears all municipal sidewalks . The cost of the program is added to the property tax bill for the residents . AJAX The By-law merely requires that the snow be cleared within reasonable time. Staff are reviewing the system with an interest in establishing a program similar to Toronto. ADDENDUM TO REPORT CD-32-94 - 3 - NOVEMBER 21, 1994 Toronto's procedure, briefly, is as follows : a complaint is received, Public Works staff inspects the area, a Formal Notice to clear the snow is left with the owner, 24 hours later the property is re-inspected, if work is not done, a request is filed with Operations Staff to clear the snow, an Operations Foreman attends and takes a photograph and fills in a work order. The foreman re-attends once the work has been completed and takes another photograph, the work order is completed and sent to the office and a letter is prepared for the owner detailing the work done and the cost which the owner must pay. This letter is delivered to the property by staff. PICKERING Sidewalks must be cleared within 12 hours of the snowfall. If this is not done, the Town can proceed to clear the walk at the owner's cost. There is, however, no clear policy on ensuring compliance. The provisions of the By-law are only enforced against chronic offenders . UXBRIDGE On receipt of a complaint, staff issue a 24 hour Notice to the property owner. If no work is done, staff then approach the ward councillor and advise them, if they know of no reason why the work was not done, then the Town hires a contractor to do the work and bills the owner. Staff believe the recommendations and procedures outlined in Report CD-32-94 are at present, the most efficient use of available manpower and the most cost effective for the Municipality as a whole. Staff have reviewed several different approaches, and feel there is little room to make any procedural changes without increasing the costs to the Municipality, the compliance time and depleting staff resources . ADDENDUM TO REPORT CD-32-94 - 4 - NOVEMBER 21, 1994 The issue of clearing snow from sidewalks is a matter of public safety. Citizens of the Municipality need to be made aware of their responsibilities . The winter season of 1993 - 1994 was the first year By-law 93-144 was in effect. Advertisements were placed in the local papers four times throughout the season and notices ran on Rogers Cablesystems Community 10 Channel one week a month, from October through February. As well, an insert was placed with the tax bills when they were sent out. Following this same procedure this season can only increase citizens ' awareness and compliance with the provisions of By-law 93-144 . Respectfully Submitted: Reviewed By: tat t L. Ba ie, A.M.C.T. W.H. Stockwell n Cl Chief Administrative Officer PLB*TM*MH r THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON ' X �A9C�1$(iB(f�( �X4t�R7C�(30f�01�3t+19��X1�1€7tXX REPORT Meeting: General Purpose and Administration Committee File# Date: Monday, July 18, 1994 Res. # By-Law# Report#: -CD-32=94 File#: Subject:- . SNOW REMOVAL FROM MUNICIPAL SIDEWALKS Reco me ISt"PX-spectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee recommend to Council the following: 1. THAT .Report CD-3.2-94 be received; 2 . THAT the interested parties be advised of Council's decision; and 3 . THAT the remaining outstanding bills for snow clearing services be processed for payment. BACKGROUND: In 1993, the Municipality passed By-law 93-144, a By-law to regulate the removal of snow and ice from roofs and sidewalks within the municipality. The By-law required all owners and/or occupants of property within the Municipality to clear the snow and ice from the sidewalks abutting their property within twelve hours of a snowfall and; "ensure that the portion of sidewalk for which they are responsible is continually kept and maintained free of slippery surfaces, snow, slush, ice or any combination thereof by appropriate means between falls of snow, rain or hail, no matter what the cause. " (section 3) The By-law also-provided for an expedited means of dealing with the removal of snow and ice from municipal sidewalks . It was not necessary for staff to issue repeated warnings to property owners or occupants . If staff found the work had not been done they could have a contractor do the work and bill the owner. i . . .2 u0lb 1 �� PAPER®RE�1- -6Pa.(IE RE"Y DPAPER REPORT CD-32-94 - 2 . - JULY 18, 1994 The Municipality retained G.W.S. Landscaping to provide snow removal services where. required. As a general guideline, if. no work was done within --twenty-four hours of a .snowfall or if •a hazardous 5ituation...arose and no -action was taken by the owner- to correct it within twenty-four hours, the contractor would be sent out to do the -work -and the owner would be billed. Notices were placed in all local newspapers advising citizens of their responsibility. These ads ran four times over the course of the winter. As well, there were notices on the local cable television channels. From January 13, 1994 until March 1, 1994 the contractor was sent out on sixteen separate occasions . to clear a total of 273 properties. ' The total•cost to. the Municipality, for this work, was $11,530 . 45. The contractor had. to clear sidewalks not only after snowfalls but also after roads had been ploughed and some of the snow had been pushed up onto the sidewalk and not subsequently cleared off by the abutting property owner. Shortly after the first invoices were sent out staff and members of Council began to receive complaints about the billing. By February 4, 126 invoices had been sent out. Of these, staff have received complaints on 21 of them. Some complaints state the work was never done, 'others that they had cleared the snow and the Municipality's snow plough had come along and shoved more snow up onto the sidewalk after they had finished. Staff were instructed to withhold sending out further invoices. It was necessary however, to continue clearing the sidewalks in the interest of public safety. 1992-93 was the first year that staff actively attempted to enforce the snow clearing by=law. By-law 87-197 was very unwieldy and time consuming. The new By-law is a great improvement, however, it still places an unreasonable strain on the By-law Division's resources. The time cost to the Municipality of the present system is enormous . The By-law Division must first receive the complaints, prepare lists, obtain addresses and ownership information and notify the contractor. Once the work has been done invoices must be prepared and the exact amount to be billed to the owner must be calculated along with the amount to be paid to the contractor. The invoices must be tracked and if no payment is made then Treasury must be advised to add the outstanding bills to the municipal taxes, and track the payments . l . . . 3 6 1 2 0 6 REPORT CD-32-94 - 3 - .JULY 18, 1994 1993-94 was the first winter for the'new by-law and staff must now reassess its effectiveness. The total. number of complaints received were up over 1992-93. There were fewer repeat complaints on ..the. same incident. This - can be 'attributed to .both' the faster turn around time in dispatching the- contractor and the greater -exposure received by both advertisements and prompt billing. The areas of public complaint can be best categorized as the following: 1. the sidewalk was never ploughed by the contractor, the owner states he did it before the contractor arrived; it should be noted that there can be delays of up to forty- eight hours between the time of the cessation of a snowfall, the filing of a complaint and. the arrival of the contractor. to do. the work; 2 . several complainants have stated they saw a small plough. in their area but it never did their sidewalk, in many cases they have confused the contractor hired to do the Public Works Seniors' Program with the one clearing sidewalks at the request of the By-law Division; 3. the sidewalk had been cleared by the owner however the snow plough had come by clearing the road and dumped more snow onto the sidewalk; in some cases the homeowners have stated that they did not feel this was their problem as they had cleared the snow in the first place and didn't have to remove anything that the plough placed there. It should be noted that these are the same areas that were complained about under the old by-law as well. ENFORCEMENT OPTIONS: Staff have explored several options in an attempt to improve the system. These are summarized below along with the major drawbacks to each option. The options are: . . .4 i REPORT CD-32-94 - 4 - JULY 18, 1994 •1. continue on as we are; this solution only perpetuates the problems as' they now. -exist; the. •process•was streamlined this year in order to operate more effectively but now several complaints have : been received about not being warned of our*intention to Y plough beforehand: there is a continuing problem of time required to administer the system as well as public complaints* about bills; 2. repeal the By-law and do nothing and hope people clear the - snow; 3. leave the By-law in place and rely on the public to clear. the snow. Both options 2 and 3 leave the Municipality very vulnerable on the subject of liability on the Town's insurance. The Municipality can be sued in cases of* "gross negligence" regardless of any By-law which places responsibility on the adjacent homeowner. The ultimate fact is that the Municipality is the owner of the sidewalk and can be held accountable for problems resulting from dangerous conditions. If our liability increases then, in all likelihood so will our insurance premiums. 4 . have Public Works or a private contractor do the work for all areas; The main problems for Public Works are manpower, the cost of the program and establishing a firm policy of how often it must be done aside from snowfall. In the case of a private contractor, they would have to be given complete jurisdiction over the program. 5. have Public Works or a private contractor do the job only in specified areas; 6 . have Public Works or a private contractor do the job for — all areas for snow falls only and leave the property owner responsible for clearing in all other situations. .5 REPORT CD-32-94 - 5 - JULY 18, 1994 Options 5 and 6 combine the worst of the other options with few, if any advantages. The Municipality still has the cost . and accepts liability for unploughed 'areas. Option 6- leaves us with the same situation as presently exists . Staff would have to persuade the citizens to clear their own walks and more importantly keep them clear at all times. Options 4, 5 and 6 create 'another problem, that of collecting the costs of work done by- either a private contractor or the Public Works Department. The offending property owners can be billed individually. This invites continued complaints from individual owners . There are other options for collecting outstanding costs . (a) The costs could be applied only to those property owners with municipal sidewalks adjacent to their property. Unfortunately there is no available list of all the sidewalks in the Municipality and some citizens would rather shovel their sidewalks than see a surcharge on their taxes for sidewalk maintenance. (b) The costs could be applied to the taxes of the residents of the urban areas only. In staff's opinion this option still imposes an unfair burden on citizens without sidewalks and those who do not object to shovelling the sidewalk. (c) The additional costs can be applied to the taxes of all residents. In this case residents in rural areas as well as those without sidewalks are asked to pay for the maintenance of something that has no direct bearing on them. The last collection alternative would be for the Municipality to accept the costs as part of their operating budget and not pass the cost on to the property owners. In staff's opinion this is not a viable alternative. The cost for the contractor to perform his work this year was in excess of $11,450.00. The Municipality cannot, be expected to absorb that kind of cost on a regular basis. E . . 6 6,Wv .. REPORT CD-32-94 - 6 - JULY 18, 1994 Staff believe the only option with any real .expectation of success would be to continue to enforce the By-law but with minor procedural changes. The contractor would be required to issue notices after any work is done and take photos of the sites before and after. Unfortunately this will increase the cost to the citizens and slow down the contractor. This process would allow us to have hard evidence of the state of the sidewalk at the time the contractor attended and it will also remove the Municipality from direct involvement in arguments as to what work was done and when. The owner would be immediately notified when the work was done thus eliminating the argument that nothing was ever done. Staff have spoken to the Public Works Department regarding complaints involving snow ploughs . There are no reasonable alternative solutions to the problem of the ploughs dumping snow back onto the boulevard and sidewalk. In some situations the boulevard is not wide enough to contain all the snow and it spills onto the sidewalk. In several of the urban and commercial areas the boulevard is virtually non-existent. OUTSTANDING INVOICES: There are approximately 150 outstanding invoices which were never sent out to the property owners. Staff are recommending that these be processed and sent to the property owners for payment. These invoices represent over $5,454.00. After it had been decided not to process any more invoices it was still necessary to have the contractor attend and clear the sidewalks on some properties. Concern has been raised over the delay in sending out these invoices, however, it should be noted that many of the invoices from 1993 were not sent out until the late spring and early summer of last year. Of the twenty-one complaints received, the contractor can account for all but four of them. These were done by another employee of the contractor and he cannot personally verify that the work was done. Staff are intending to cancel only these invoices. The remaining ones would have to be paid. Staff do not believe it would be proper to cancel the remaining outstanding invoices as this would have the effect of penalizing those citizens who acted in good faith and paid their bills . . .7 J jl. REPORT CD-32-94 - 7 - JULY 18, 1994 CONCLUSION: For many years there was little or nothing done to enforce the provisions of the previous Snow Removal By-law. Increased concern over public safety and the Municipality's liability have resulted. in a need for more active enforcement of the By-law. Staff believe that the existing system can be made to. work effectively with only minor modifications . Respectfully submitted: Reviewed by: Pa ti L. rrie A.M.C.T. W.H. Stockwell Town Clerk Chief Administrative Officer THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON BY-LAW 94-190 Being a By-law to amend By-law 91-58 being a By-law to Regulate Traffic on Highways, Municipal and Private Property in the Municipality of Clarington WHEREAS the Council of the Corporation of the Municipality of Clarington deems it desirable to amend By-law 91-58; NOW THEREFORE the Council of the Municipality of Clarington enacts as follows: 1) Schedule XV "Through Highways" of By-law 91-58 is amended by; A) deleting the following references x Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Highway From To i Concession Road No. East limit of Leskard West limit of King's 7 (Road between Road Highway No. 35 Concessions 6 & 7) ?;..: (Clarke) Leskard Road North limit of Durham South limit of (Road in Concession Regional Road No. 4 Concession Road No. 8 6-8, Lots 30-32) (Clarke) .... And .w.. B) adding the following reference: Column 1 .t Column 2 Column 3 Highwav From To Concession Road No. East limit of Best West limit of King's 7 (Road between Road Concessions 6 & 7) Highway No. 35 (Darlington) Leskard Road North limit of South limit of (Road in Concession Concession Road No. 7 Concession Road No. 8 7-8, Lots 30-32) (Clarke) 2) This By-law shall come into Force on the date that it iY approved by the Council of the Regional Municipality of Durham and when signs to the effect are erected. ` B Y­LAW read a first and second time this 28th day of November 1994 BY-LAW read a third time and finally passed this 28th day of November 1994 MAYOR ;.: CLERK .. THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON BY-LAW 94-191 Being a By-law to amend By-law 91-58 being a By-law to Regulate Traffic on Highways, Municipal and Private Property in the Municipality of Clarington WHEREAS the Council of the Corporation of the Municipality of Clarington deems it desirable to amend By-law 91-58; a:. NOW THEREFORE the Council of the Municipality of Clarington enacts as follows: 1) Schedule XVI "Stop Signs" of By-law 91-58 is amended by; adding the following reference: Column f Column 2 Intersection Facing Traffic Leskard Road and Northbound on Leskard Road "f Concession Road 7 (Clarke) Leskard Road and Southbound on Leskard Road Concession Road 7 (Clarke) Concession Road 7 and Eastbound on Concession Road 7 Best Road (Clarke) Concession Road 7 and Westbound on Concession Road 7 Best Road (Clarke) rr 2) This By-law shall come into Force on the date that it is approved by the Council of the Regional Municipality of Durham <-:::a and when signs to the effect are erected. BY-LAW read a first and second time this 28th day of November 1994 BY-LAW read a third time and finally passed this 28th day of `1 November 1994 MAYOR CLERK i L.S. j; 3. .... Y:.;':.. 1 THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON BY-LAW 94-192 being a by-law to authorize an agreement between the Corporation of the Municipality of Clarington and Wong Gregersen Architects Incorporated for full architectural services for the Courtice Community Complex THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON HEREBY ENACTS AS FOLLOWS: 1. THAT the Mayor and Clerk are hereby authorized to execute on behalf of the Corporation of the Municipality of Clarington and seal with the Corporation Seal, an agreement between Wong Gregersen Architects Incorporated and the said Corporation; and 2. THAT Schedule "A" attached hereto forms part of this By-law. By-law read a first and second time this 28th day of November 1994 By-law read a third time and finall y passed this 28th day of November 1994 MAYOR CLERK i I i I THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON BY-LAW 94-193 being a by-law to authorize an agreement between the Corporation of the Municipality of Clarington and Greer Galloway Architects and Engineers for i renovations to the Fire and Court Building THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON HEREBY ENACTS AS FOLLOWS: 1. THAT the Mayor and Clerk are hereby authorized to execute on _ behalf of the Corporation of the Municipality of Clarington and seal with the Corporation Seal, an agreement between Greer Galloway Architects and Engineers and the said Corporation; and 2. THAT Schedule "A" attached hereto forms part of this By-law. By-law read a first and second time this 28th day of November 1994 By-law read a third time and finally passed this 28th day of November 1994 ':.:T.'.'.::. MAYOR .... 1 CLERK ................. i; j � THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON BY-LAW 94-194 being a by-law to authorize an agreement between of the Municipality of Clarin on the Corporation i y gt and Barry Bryan Associates Limited for Project Co-ordinator Services for the Courtice Community Complex THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON HEREBY ENACTS AS FOLLOWS: 1. THAT the Mayor and Clerk are hereby authorized to execute on ' behalf of the Corporation of the Municipality of Clarington and seal with the Corporation Seal, an agreement between Barry Bryan Associates Limited and the said Corporation; and 2. THAT Schedule "A" attached hereto forms part of this By-law. By-law read a first and second time this 28th day of November 1994 By-law read a third time and finally passed this 28th day of November 1994 `? MAYOR :':::::::::'3i; CLERK i _. , _ i I ( 1 � ,^t :,I