After a light workload for Armstrong bylaw officers two years ago, the bylaw department had its hands full last year.
The city's bylaw enforcement and dog control statistical report from last year showed a welcome development: a 44 per cent decrease in bylaw complaints in 2023 compared the the previous year, for a total of just 129 complaints. The report attributed the dip in complaints to increased efforts to communicate with the public.
But this year's report shows 2023 may have been an anomaly.
The report, presented to Armstrong council at its Monday, Feb. 24 meeting, shows a stark reversal of what might have been a promising trend, with a 125 per cent increase in bylaw complaints in 2024 for a total of 290 incidents.
Bylaw officers noted 2024 calls for service were closer to more historical levels, though it's still a 25 per cent increase over 2022 levels.
The report attributes some of the increase to "increasing improvements in our officers' diligence."
Another cause of the increase is feuds between neighbours regarding unsightly properties. Residents have to keep their properties clean and free of "unwholesome" materials under Armstrong's Good Neighbour bylaw. The report says complaints piled up in 2024 due to a "surge" in unsightly complaints, with some residents appearing to be filing bylaw complaints as retribution for complaints made against them.
"A portion of the surge in unsightly complaints is due to increasing circumstances where neighbourhood disputes are occurring, and residents are seeking a punitive approach to penalizing their neighbours in retaliation," the report states. "Officers are seeing more complaints than in past years where an accused responds to a complaint against them by making their own complaints against their neighbour or other properties throughout the community after the point of contact with the bylaw officer."
Another action contributing to an increase in bylaw files is described in the report as a "proactive approach to enforcing violations with historical problematic properties where there have not been recent public complaints." The report says this has helped with some properties that have been subject to on-and-off complaints over the past five years, though it did drive up last year's tally of files.
The top five bylaw complaint increases were unsightly properties (56), traffic and parking (18), zoning (18), noise (13) and signage and sidewalk use (nine).
Dog control received 86 complaints in 2024, up from 64 the previous year but still consistent with historical levels. Barking dogs were the biggest culprits with 26 complaints, but 40 per cent of these calls were related to a single property.
There was also a large jump in "other species" complaints. The 21 complaints were related to "wildlife" (13) and cats (eight).
Dogs at large accounted for 15 complaints, and there were six complaints of aggressive dogs.
The bylaw department manager identified that city council could look at changing the sign bylaw and its "Use of Sidewalks" program to help mitigate liability and non-compliance due to commercial encroachments and non-compliant signs.
The end report offers some optimism at the end: staff anticipate fewer calls in 2025 because two problematic properties are being sold and one property is awaiting redevelopment.
