Trustees seek to prioritize bylaw enforcement
Island Trustees will be working with bylaw enforcement staff to come up with a new way to prioritize enforcement on bylaw infractions on Gabriola Island.
Miles Drew, Bylaw Enforcement Coordinator attended the latest Gabriola Local Trust Committee meeting last week.
Miles and Enforcement Officer Peter Phillips took a snapshot prior to Miles’s presentation on what was in the case files for Gabriola.
At that point in time, there were 23 active investigations into violations. They were for complaints of one development permit, three home occupation files, four land use violations, one siting violation, five short-term vacation rentals and nine unlawful dwellings.
Miles explained while the Trust Council-established policy is to enforce bylaws that have an immediate effect on the environment, trustees can, like any local government, request there be a focus on certain types of infractions.
Investigations into violations are opened according to the priority list. Miles said after the files are worked on “they have their own life.”
He said unlike when people take out development permits and other applications, bylaw enforcement is not a quick process.
“Bylaw enforcement is like pushing a big rock up a hill. It’s not like people want enforcement like they do with a permit; it’s the opposite.”
He said recently Peter and he have discussed the issue of unlawful dwellings and the fact people are reporting and making complaints on dwellings which are in fact lawful.
Miles said, “By no means am I saying they are all legal, but Peter has discovered some of the dwellings being complained about are lawful.”
Trustees Sheila Malcolmson and Gisele Rudischer asked if there was any communication back to the complainants to let them know a dwelling is lawful.
Gisele said she’d heard from a number of people who have made complaints that they don’t get any responses, so they don’ t know what happens once the investigation is over, or if it has been done.
Miles said an automatic response is kicked out by the Trust online complaint system to the complainant, ensuring they know it has been registered.
But there is often not a followup, as enforcement staff move from the completed investigation on to an uncompleted one.
“It is shocking how much resource gets consumed by doing those followup complaints. The natural disposition [of the officer] is to work on the other half.”
He acknowledged there might be better work done to communicate back to complainants, but it really comes down to the direction given by Trust Council and how much time would be spent not investigating other complaints.
Sheila brought up that there is a policy within the Trust that an explanation of the investigation should and would be provided to the complainant. She added if that isn’t being done, perhaps it shouldn’t be in the policies.
Miles said there has been an attempt to say to people if they would like to know what happened, to contact staff and ask.
“If you have information or are curious about it, please call. That’s what we’re relying on. The ones that call are curious and the ones that don’t aren’t.”
Gisele asked how a community would go about prioritizing investigations.
Miles said, “If there is a concern in an LTC area, ask for a report and then make a resolution.”
Gisele made a motion requesting bylaw enforcement staff produce a detailed report on the open bylaw enforcement files on the Gabriola area.
Miles said he would be able to produce such a report, but it would be presented in camera as it would have legal details which his department cannot disclose.
Sheila said other local trust committees have “taken the approach of adopting a policy which says, for example, if you get a whole bunch of vacation home complaints, first of all we want you to enforce on the ones that are advertising everywhere, and the ones that are just renting out to relatives and aren’t advertising, do them last.”
She said she has been hearing “anxiety about bylaw enforcement on densities and illegal dwellings. I get that.
“I get people would be anxious if they are living in poor conditions and don’t want to be surprised.
“This is not to say we’ll turn a blind eye to infractions, but that there will be some kind of community input in to what is the most important kind of infraction.”
Miles said having some kind of nuanced enforcement strategy would be a “great idea and in fact I’ve become increasingly concerned about the unlawful dwelling enforcement.
“It covers a wide swatch from destitute to really swank suites.
“I haven’t put my mind about in what a nuanced enforcement strategy will be. I’m certain we need one. If we go out and enforce them all in the same way, I just don’t think we have the will or ability to do it.”
He said it is something he would be able to work on to present at a later meeting.