Following one resident’s unsuccessful bid to keep a hedge behind her house, the Town of Okotoks is cracking down on people with landscaping on public land.

In June, Okotoks council turned down a request from Sharon Molnar to leave the hedge she planted on Town land in place and gave her family an extension to Sept. 15 to remove the landscaping.

Aron Siebert removes a bush from behind a home in the Cimarron area home last week. It was one of two homes targeted by the Town of Okotoks for having landscaping done on public land.

Last week, the Town removed bushes from behind two homes in the Cimarron area that were also on public land.

Last week the Town removed a row of alpine currant bushes behind the home of George and Diana Holmes. The couple had them planted in May 2008, four months before they moved into the house.

It wasn’t long before they were informed they weren’t allowed to plant the hedge.

He asked for the bushes to be grandfathered under the old rules.

George said they didn’t know about the law and they thought it would be okay because they had seen other people had done the same thing in other areas of town.

“We felt the work people were doing not only enhanced their property but also municipal property,” he said.

When they moved in to their home, George said they received a large information package about the Town, but it didn’t say anything about not planting on public property.

He also said it’s a double standard to allow it in some areas and not in others.

Diana said the Town could allow people to plant bushes behind their homes, require maintenance agreements and impose fines or remove the plants if they’re not looked after.

The Town also removed a row of bushes from behind the home of Holmes’ neighbour Glenn Rogers.

He had the bushes planted in April 2008, one month after the bylaw prohibiting landscaping on municipal land was passed.

Rogers said the Town has created a double standard by allowing some to have plants outside their yards and not allowing others.

“We are paying the same taxes they are,” he said. “They are allowed to have this privilege but we are not.”

Rogers said he believes the Town could’ve developed a system that would allow people to landscape areas behind their properties.

“All they had to do was use a little intelligent, lateral thinking and say if you’re going to put that in and we allow it you either have to remove it when you sell or leave it the way it is and put a caveat on the property about the maintenance,” he said.

Okotoks open spaces coordinator Christa Michailuck said another homeowner has until the end of the month to remove plants from behind the yard and she said the homeowner is complying.

“There’s always more letters that open spaces issues to residents who have planted without authorization,” she said.

Historically, the Town allowed people to plant trees, bushes and landscape on Town-owned land behind their homes. Residents had to sign a landscaping agreement outlining what would be planted and where.

The Town signed the last agreement in 2006 and then issued a moratorium on new agreements. The practice was then banned in the Urban Forest Plan approved by town council in March 2008. Anything planted afterwards would have to be removed.

These rules also cover putting park benches, bird feeders and any other physical structures on public land.

Michailuck said there are a number of reasons why the Town no longer allows people to plant anything on public land.

“It’s not an appropriate thing to happen in public parks,” said Michailuck.

Other concerns include introduction of invasive species into park areas, differing maintenance standards, maintaining fire barriers and access for mowing and maintenance.

Town staff is not removing the landscaping it is being removed by the developer of the Cimarron subdivision.

Once the landscaping is removed Michailuck said the developer will get a final acceptance certificate for the subdivision.

She said the Town will not send a bill to the residents who were in contravention of the bylaw and it’s up to the developer to decide if they will bill the homeowners.

The Town conducted an inventory of public plantings in October 2007 and found 60 approved cases of landscaping on public land and 60 that were not approved.

She said anything in place at that time is allowed to remain in place, but no changes or additions can be made to them.

“If they did not have a permit we’re not targeting those ones to come out, we’ve kind of said we’ll grandfather them at this point,” she said.

She said she is planning to do another count of public plantings in the coming months to get a better idea of how many incidents exist.

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