Hanmer residents call foul on neighbourhood basketball nets

Julia Neville can't leave her basketball net on the gravel shoulder of her street anymore.

Earlier this summer, a city bylaw officer told her a complaint had been lodged against nets blocking the road by her home.

Neville's street is 1 kilometre long, two lanes wide and she said she has only ever seen three nets on it. 

On top of that, she said that none of her neighbours have brought the issue up before.

"It's placed in the same general area as where we place our garbage cans on garbage day," Neville said. "I would think if you can navigate around garbage cans on garbage day, you can probably navigate around this basketball net." 

Sudbury City councillor Robert Kirwan, who shut down a conversation on his Valley East Facebook page about the infraction, said he raised three boys, and understands that kids shouldn't be discouraged from playing outside.

"Emotions are high because it's just a bunch of kids wanting to get out and get some exercise," Kirwan said. "But the bylaw says you can't have anything that hangs over the roadway. You can't just ignore that."

Kirwan said that the larger problem to address is that neighbours are using bylaws against each other, instead of resolving minor issues among themselves. 

"I hate bylaws because they're complaint driven," he said. "You could have three basketball nets on a street, the complaint could be against the middle house, that's the house that the bylaw officer has to go and investigate."

"That's the house that's going to be ordered to move the basketball net off their property."