Simplified yard bylaw aims to avoid fines for 'naturalized' front yards

City of London staff are suggesting changes to the yard maintenance bylaw in an effort to allow front-yard landscaping with larger plants over manicured lawns while also avoiding conflict over what qualifies as a "naturalized" area or a wildflower meadow. 

According to a staff report coming to a council committee on Tuesday, the new bylaw will remove the "naturalized areas and wildflower meadows policy" which tried to define what constitutes a yard that features a mix of naturally occurring native plants and grasses outside of a traditional turf lawn. 

Instead, the new bylaw sets a height limit of eight inches for traditional turf lawns and a three-foot height maximum on any other "vegetative growth" near "driveway visibility triangles," essentially spots where tall plants yards could obscure the line of sight for drivers. 

Brendon Samuels chairs the city's environmental stewardship committee and was part of the consultation that shaped the new bylaw. He's an advocate of ditching lawns over more natural landscaping because it typically requires fewer chemicals, water and mowing to maintain. 

He said the bylaw changes are needed in part because there have been instances in which homeowners' attempts to plant pollinator gardens and native plants instead of grass brought them in conflict with bylaw officers. The previous policy relied on specific definitions to enforce and he said this led to conflict over subjective opinions on the aesthetics of yards and lawns. 

"We had difficulty understanding what was required," said Samuels. "The bylaw was being used to regulate the aesthetics of yards, and case studies revealed that's not really in the municipality's jurisdiction. The old bylaw was subject to an enormous amount of complaints." 

Another change to the proposed new bylaw is that people who want to have a naturalized yard — with a mix of plants instead of a traditional lawn — no longer have to apply for an exemption. They just have to keep plants below three feet high around roads so they don't obscure sightliness. 

"Before it was really up to the discretion of individual bylaw officers," said Samuels.  He also said the new bylaw's wording to define grass as "turf grass" is important because it differentiates a non-native specifies like Kentucky rye grass from natural grasses which under the new bylaw can be longer than eight inches tall.

Samuels has a naturalized backyard and used native plants to install a rain garden in his front yard. It triggered an infraction notice last May. From there he started digging into the bylaw and found that others had received notices for trying to go with a more naturalized look over a golf-course style green lawn.

As for Londoners who believe naturalized yards look messy, Samuels said if it's not a matter of health or safety, bylaw officers have almost no authority in law.

"You have a guarantee of freedom of expression when it comes to your landscaping," he said. "It's kind of a 'mind your business,'" he said. 

Marry Ann Hodge is an environmental activist who found the previous bylaw confusing. 

"You hear of people afraid to naturalize their yards because they're afraid of tickets," she said. "People want to help nature and yet they don't want to get a ticket and feel like they've done something wrong. It's helpful to have things a little more clear." 

There will be follow up steps to add to the bylaw, including coming up with a list of specific native species