City of Vernon bylaws indicate that residents must maintain boulevards, the area between their property line and the curb or paved portion of the roadway.
“To keep taxes low and to maintain neighbourhood esthetics, the city relies on residents to take care of the boulevards adjacent to their property or on their alley’s edge,” said Clint Kanester, bylaw enforcement manager.
Here are some tips:
• Keep trees, hedges, weeds and grasses planted on the boulevard or adjacent to it well-maintained and trimmed.
• If you have a boulevard tree in the city’s inventory, operations staff will maintain it for you. Call 250-549-6757 if you have a boulevard tree that needs attention.
• Clean up any rubbish from boulevards.
• Don’t park on boulevards. Parking on boulevards can interrupt pedestrian traffic, damage the grass and the curb and drag mud or landscape materials onto the street. This is also a Motor Vehicle Act infraction.
• Boulevards often contain city utilities such as gas lines, TV or telephone. As boulevards are not constructed to the same standard as roadways, parking may damage them. It may also restrict access to utility boxes, water shut offs or gas valves. Do not cover these up by parking over them.
• Don’t park the wrong way on the boulevard. If parked the wrong way, leaving the boulevard is dangerous as you have to cross a lane of traffic. Entering a roadway from the wrong direction is the fifth leading cause of death on B.C. roadways.
