Martensville considers fines for 'unsightly' yards

Neglected properties concern neighbours WATCH: A Saskatoon man is concerned with the lack of property maintenance at city homes.

Overgrown yards, graffiti, and dilapidated buildings could soon cost you in the City of Martensville.

Martensville city council is looking at changes to the city's nuisance bylaw that would allow tickets to be issued to residents who violate the rules.

Fire chief Kurtis Dyck said the city has had trouble with compliance with the current bylaw.

“We're hoping that this is going to solve some issues.”

The first offence would cost $250, the second $500 and a third offence would run $750.

Residents with "unsightly" property "due to graffiti or the accumulation of new or used lumber, cardboard, paper, newspapers, appliances, tires, cans, barrels, scrap metal or other waste materials or junk" or overgrown lawns in excess of 20 centimetres could be slapped with a fine.

“We looked a little bit at what other communities have done and we've kind of followed suit,” Dyck told CTV News. “It also matches with our traffic bylaw and our fire prevention bylaw as well.”

The process for the current bylaw has the city doing a clean-up of the yard and charging residents for the work, Dyck explained.

“If people didn't comply then we would hire a contractor to come in and rectify the problem and they would be billed for the work that had to be done.”

Dyck said if residents didn’t pay, the cost would be included in their taxes.

“We still plan to do that in certain situations. But this just gives us another avenue to try to get in compliance with people. Our goal is to educate and there'll be education prior to getting tickets, but at some point when we've exhausted our options, they will get tickets.”

The plan will be discussed during Tuesday’s council meeting.