Feuding residents have made the atmosphere in one Etobicoke neighbourhood so toxic they've inspired the local councillor to investigate new ways for the city to resolve disputes between residents.

Coun. Stephen Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre) told CBC News that over the past summer, the city fielded 47 complaints about bylaw infractions against 18 homeowners — all of them within a block of one another. Holyday has moved a motion calling on city staff to find alternatives

The complaints are for grass that's too long, loose shingles, too many cars in a driveway, improper fence heights and other minor zoning and property standards infractions, Holyday said Tuesday.

"The epicentre" was at the intersection of Sabine Road and Massingham Road, he said. That intersection is in the Martin Grove Road and Eglinton Avenue West area.

4 bylaw complaints in 3 days

"I'm very upset, very angry," said Gloria Niezen, a Massingham Road resident who received five complaints this summer, including two on June 16 and two more three days later. "It's just beyond words."

It doesn't appear that any one homeowner is calling in the bylaw complaints, Holyday said.

He believes that some residents who received a visit from a bylaw enforcement officer because of a neighbour's complaint retaliated by lodging complaints of their own. "Factions" then formed, and the tension escalated to the point that "threats have been made and there have even been posters put up on telephone poles."

Coun. Stephen Holyday speaks with residents near the corner of Sabine and Massingham roads in Etobicoke on Tuesday. (Mike Smee)

Lynn Yawney, who lives on Sabine Road, said she and her husband lodged four of the complaints, but said she is being unfairly blamed by her neighbours for many more.

She said a poster was put up on a telephone pole that ridiculed her and listed her name and address.

"Why am I being slandered?" she asked. "Why are we being picked on?"

​Holyday's motion asks city staff to investigate new ways of helping neighbours resolve their arguments without involving bylaw enforcement officers. It will be debated at the municipal licensing and standards committee next week.

Holyday wants better dispute resolution

"Regrettably, the root cause of these complaint clusters often reveals itself to be the result of neighbour-to-neighbour disputes, where the city bylaw investigation system has been misappropriated by quarrelling parties as a retaliatory tool," Holyday wrote in a letter accompanying his motion.

The letter also says that while the conflict on Sabine and Massingham is an extreme case, there are "many examples where one complaint blossoms into a long list involving neighbouring properties identified in the heat of the moment without consideration for the broader consequences."

Vince Oddi and his wife received four letters from the city outlining neighbours' complaints. (CBC)

Neither Holyday nor any of the residents interviewed by CBC News Tuesday could say how the bad blood developed. But the complaints began to escalate in May and ran into August, according to records available on the city's website.

At the battle's height, in June and July, some residents were receiving several complaints a week; occasionally two in one day.

Although the complaints have tapered off since then, four more were lodged in September. They have since been resolved, but city records don't indicate whether they were investigated and found to be baseless, or the homeowner fixed the problem.

A handful of complaints from last summer's feud remain unresolved, according to the records.