My name is Susan and have lived in Erinan Estates for almost 5 years now. Our entire neighbourhood has complained for years now that the city of Sooke does not care for the boulevards in our neighbourhood. We were told it was not the city’s responsibility to care for the grass or the trees that line the other side of the sidewalk. So after several years of looking at nothing but dead grass and weeds, we decided to clean up and plant our portion of the boulevard. We then learned that we could not get our $500 deposit back because we did not plant sod. So we decided to leave it and do without our refund because it looked better. This morning (July 15), a bylaw officer came by an informed us that we have to remove those plants.
Half the trees in our neighbourhood are dying and the boulevards are so full of weeds that they have spread to all our lawns. We pay almost $6,000 in taxes every year. And nothing is cared for and now we are being told that we have to either rip out our plants or try and get permission from the engineering department.
We have contacted the city a few times about the empty lots that have become overgrown with broom with no results. And now, you are asking us to remove perfectly good plants that look nice. The plants are all low to the ground and so do not constitute a safety issue and we water all the time so it certainly isn’t a fire hazard, in fact less of a hazard than the dry brittle weeds filling up all the boulevards in the subdivision.
Could you please explain the logic behind this?