The City of Kingston is looking to crack down on rowdy house parties with a proposed nuisance party bylaw in an attempt to curb out-of-control parties.
Under the proposed bylaw, Kingston police would decide whether a social gathering is deemed a nuisance party. Officers would start by issuing a verbal warning and ask all partygoers to leave.
For those who choose to ignore the warning, they could be slapped with a hefty fine. The set fine is $500 in addition to a victim fine surcharge. Repeat offenders could face fines ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.
Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson says the bylaw addresses safety concerns that sometimes arise at out-of-control house parties especially during frosh week, homecoming or St. Patrick’s Day.
“We are concerned about safety if we think about something like ‘brewfing’ where you have a bunch of people that are up on top of a roof, how someone could be seriously injured or even killed in an environment like that,” said Paterson.
Paterson says this isn’t an anti-student bylaw. In fact, if passed, it would apply to everyone in the community. The Queen’s Alma Mater Society has been working alongside with the city on the proposed new rules.
“The problem becomes a little more pertinent when it spills out into the public domain and that’s exactly what this nusiance party bylaw is attempting to address. Parties that have left the domestic sphere and have spilled out into a public area,” said Stephano Hollands, the Commissioner of Municipal Affairs for the Alma Mater Society.
Paterson says he’d like to have the bylaw in place by mid-March just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.
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