The first bit of your front lawn does not belong to you. It belongs to the Town of Slave Lake, and the Town decides what you can do with it.
Such has always been the case. What has also been the case is that the Town hasn’t done much in the way of enforcing its long-standing rule that property owners have grass and nothing but grass on that piece of ground they call ‘boulevard.’ Some yard fronts have trees, shrubs, rocks, planters, boxes and other permanent or semi-permanent structures on them – all in violation of the law. But the Town has let it be, more or less.
The question of enforcing the existing standards has come up recently, and Town council realized it was in a bit of a pickle. If it started forcing property owners to toe the line after years of laissez faire, would it cause more problems than it solved?
Such were among the considerations when council directed the Planning and Development department to come up with a proposal for a revamped boulevard by-law.
At its Mar. 16 meeting, council gave second and third readings to the new by-law, meaning that it will go into effect.
What’s different about it?
“It gives more leniency,” Planning and Development Officer Laurie Skrynyk told council during the public hearing that preceded the vote. Leniency, in this case, means something more than grass is allowed. After the first metre, the new by-law permits annual bedding plants, ground cover, bark, mulch or wood chips and seasonal planters. The planters must be removed by Oct. 1.
The new by-law does not allow shale, rock or granular materials, retaining walls, fences, hedges, shrubs, permanent planters or any other type of permanent structure.
Where does that leave homes that already have some or all of these things?
They’ll be in violation, but no more than they always have been.
At the public hearing, council heard from one homeowner who has crushed gravel and shrubs in the boulevard area. It looks good, it’s never been any kind of a problem, she said, and she doesn’t want to have to move it.
“I’m for the by-law if I don’t have to change my yard and I’m damn well against it if I have to,” she said.
Councillors had a host of misgivings about the issue, but eventually voted in favour of it, with Shirley Torresan- Chykerda opposed. In a subsequent interview, Skrynyk said she expects the new by-law enforcement to proceed as it did with the old one.

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