The City of Colwood will soon have a new bylaw on the books aimed at empowering the city to recover the costs generated from its response to nuisance properties when tickets have proven to be ineffective.
At its Oct. 10 regular meeting, council unanimously approved first, second and third readings of the new bylaw, leaving only adoption for a later date.
Reporting to council, staff said the need for the bylaw arose as bylaw services found repeat nuisance property owners were simply not paying the multiple fines they had been issued by bylaw officers.
The report said three properties, in particular, had more than five bylaw complaints against them within the past year and had been ticketed multiple times, yet the bylaw infractions continue. One of those properties also had 96 West Shore RCMP files generated within the same time frame, and 25 of those files could be considered nuisances.
“With the introduction of the Nuisance Abatement and Cost Recovery Bylaw, if council were to declare a property a nuisance, then any associated fees for a repeat bylaw violation or repeat police attendance, if left unpaid before Dec. 31 of the current year, may be added onto the property as taxes of the home,” read the staff report to council.
Those fees amount to $250 per attendance for bylaw officers, RCMP officers, building inspectors or public works staff, $750 for fire department attendance, and actual costs plus 10 per cent for contracted services attendance.
Staff said similar bylaws exist in other municipalities such as the cities of Langford and Nanaimo and have proven effective.
“I’m strongly in support of this bylaw. This discussion has been ongoing for as long as I have been on council,” said Coun. Dean Jantzen. “This is a tool municipalities use to deal with the worst of the worst.”
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