What was intended as a public awareness campaign regarding the rules of parking recreational vehicles and trailers on residential property seemed to go a little awry, city council heard Wednesday night.
During a special council meeting called to wrap up business leftover from Monday night, members of council engaged in a lengthy discussion about the zoning bylaw prohibiting RVs and trailers longer than 6.1 metres from being kept in the front of a home - including the driveway.
Coun. Brian Skakun brought a motion before council suggesting the city revisit that section of the bylaw and possibly not enforce it since many residents were unaware it existed.
City manager Beth James agreed that communicating those rules to the community hadn't been well done.
A few weeks ago, following feedback from some members of council who had been fielding resident complaints about neighbours with vehicles parked on the front of their property, the city reached out to remind the community about the rules.
"When we did that this year... I think it did what it was intended to do, which was to raise awareness," said James. "But then people started to worry."
It was that worry that prompted Skakun to bring his motion forward.
"I thought I'd bring this notice of motion to council tonight to at least have some discussion," he said. "And since this education of the public happened so late in the year I don't think it would be fair to say to them 'now we're going to start ticketing you' even if it's only complaint-driven because many people don't even know about the zoning bylaw."
Since 2012, no tickets have been issued for the 35 related complaints, said James. Instead, the planning department engages in discussions with the offenders.
"I think we're seeing from the process over the last three years that we're not being punitive to people, we're actually working with people to obtain two things: the education and voluntary compliance," she said. "And that's also resolving issues between the neighbours as being the middle person so the neighbours are not having to deal with it. So I would hope you give us time to continue on with this process that we've begun this year and work on it over time."
Skakun ultimately withdrew his original motion but put forward a new one asking staff to take a look at how the bylaw is enforced as part of next year's workplan.
"And I think the new council when [it] gets together in January they'll discuss this issue of whether or not it's a priority to continue a public education campaign or perhaps rewrite the bylaw so there is more flexibility because these units are getting longer," Skakun said. The bylaw was originally started in 2005 with public consultation, passed in 2007 so things have changed. I think in the long run we will revisit the bylaw and hopefully increase the length a little bit to give more flexibility."
