The Awads commissioned the mural after consulting the Ottawa police website about tips to deter graffiti. (Courtesy of Alexandra Awad)

A ban on murals in Ottawa's residential areas could soon be loosened after complaints that the city is sending mixed messages.

The City of Ottawa and the Ottawa police recommend putting up murals as a way to deter graffiti, as graffiti taggers usually don't touch murals out of respect for the artist's work.

However, murals are banned in residential areas by the city's sign bylaw. They are allowed on commercial buildings and institutions such as schools.

Susan Jones, Ottawa's director of bylaw services, said Friday that the city is considering amending the bylaw to allow murals in areas such as alleys close to downtown.

The news was greeted with delight by Alexandra Awad, who feared she would have to remove a newly painted mural on her Hintonburg garage if any of their neighbours complained.

"Oh, that's very good, I'm so glad," she said when she heard the bylaw may be changed. "It's important that the downtown core looks downtownish."

Awad and her husband Tony Awad commissioned the mural, which faces an alley, after consulting the Ottawa police website about ways to deter graffiti.

"It said, 'Consider adding a mural to your property.' So we did," she said.

They hired Christian Awad, a relative known in Ottawa's urban graffiti artist community as Zeebot, to spray paint the artwork after receiving a warning letter from the City of Ottawa giving them 12 days to remove letters scrawled on their garage by graffiti taggers.

Awad said the response from her neighbours had been mostly positive.

City likely won't enforce bylaw

Jones said the city will likely not enforce the bylaw even if someone complains about the Awads' mural because that would be a waste of time, given that the city is planning to change the rules.

"We appreciate [what] the community and individuals such as this Hintonburg homeowner did to try and tackle the problem with graffiti and we think it is a unique approach and definitely something to look at," she added.

'It's important that the downtown core looks downtownish.'— Alexandra Awad

Nevertheless, the city only plans to go so far with loosening the rules.

"It's not something that would fit within the character of most of our neighbourhoods," Jones said. "I think there would be pushback from many residents in the City of Ottawa that this is not a look they'd really want to see in our suburbs and in the face and front properties."

The city recently loosened the rules for murals on commercial and institutional buildings so that owners no longer have to apply for a permit to commission such art.

According to the city, 95 per cent of graffiti occurs on commercial buildings and city assets.