Heritage hedges? Special status could mean life or death for Kanata shrubbery [Video]

A bylaw complaint about an unruly hedge is threatening the character of an Ottawa suburb, residents say, and a neighbourhood heritage designation may be their best hope to preserve it.

In early September, a bylaw officer visited Catherine Douglas’s home in the Beaverbrook neighbourhood of Kanata North.

The officer informed her the decades-old cedar hedge at the back of her property was encroaching on a narrow, poorly maintained walking path that runs alongside Beaverbrook Road.

Because she’d just paid to have the hedge trimmed in May, Douglas showed the officer a receipt for the work to prove she was caring for the hedge responsibly.