Bylaw Enforcement Process in Lake Country

Bylaw infractions are a common occurrence in any local government that enacts regulatory bylaws. This was highlighted last week when a property owner in the District of Lake Country, believing her neighbour to be contravening an ‘unsightly property and visual nuisance’ bylaw, approached the media in an attempt to get the property owner to take action and clean up his property.

Hazel Christy, Director of Corporate Services for the District, says that local governments have used three main strategies to deal with the problem:

1. Seek voluntary compliance; or
2. Issue an offence notice for infractions, seeking voluntary payment of a prescribed fine; or
3. Initiate formal court proceedings by issuing a Municipal Ticket Information (MTI) or a Summons.

“Voluntary compliance is obviously our preferred way of dealing with bylaw infractions.As is the case with many other small municipalities, we have to prioritize how we spend taxpayers’ funds. Safety, health and the environment are our first priorities and we have always taken the required action when there has been any risk to our citizens even if it has meant costly legal action,” she said.

With reference to the specific case in Lake Country, Christy said, “Although the discarded material is unsightly, District staff inspected the property and found that it poses neither safety, health nor environmental risks. Instead of taking costly legal action, we have been in regular contact with the owner, who has committed to voluntarily clean up all discarded material in order to comply with the District’s Prohibition of Unsightly Premises Bylaw No. 433.”

Christy says, “The introduction of a new Bylaw Adjudication system will help municipalities tremendously in enforcing bylaws. Municipalities in the Okanagan have worked closely to get this implemented hopefully in the Fall of 2010. The goal of the new adjudication model is to create simple, fair and cost effective systems for dealing with minor bylaw infractions.”

Mayor James Baker, Council and District staff will be engaging with the community to address issues related to bylaws and their enforcement along with other community issues during Front Porch Meetings in the Fall of 2010.

For more information contact Hazel Christy, Director of Corporate Services, District of Lake Country Phone 250-766-5650 or hchristy@lakecountry.bc.ca