96 replies to this topic

[Sparky]

We have 13 local areas having jurisdiction in the Capital Regional District.

It would be a logical assumption that each jurisdiction would have a set of rules (read bylaws) that we, as good citizens, should (read shall) adhere to.

It should also be reasonable to assume that each area would garner a particular set of bylaws that might apply to their local area. That makes sense.

Bylaws should grow out of the grass roots of a community's needs and desires. The needs and desires of Victoria proper would certainly be different from the needs and desires of Mechosin, Sooke, or Shirley, Saanich, or wherever.

Bylaws for the most part should define a process of how we conduct business and how we live with each other...whether it be building a house, erecting a fence, or parking an unlicensed vehicle, or dealing with your barking dog.

This seems reasonable doesn't it? This might appear to be a formula to establish a set of intelligent rules of which to co-exist with one's neighbors.....

If you are a hapless smuck like me you might say yes.

But wait.

If someone in your jurisdiction is not playing by the rules...or perhaps in the oft chance the municipality itself is not playing by the rules....and it is affecting your quality of life.....and you are not happy...what now?

You file a complaint don't you.


So how's that working out for you?

If you lived next door to the "Curse of Harriet" probably not so much.

So how do we deal with our authorities that have jurisdiction when they are unable or incapable of performing their duties?

A building inspector once told me that a rule without a penalty is just a suggestion.

Someone else told me that an elected official is just a neighbor who has lost his/her way.

Does your Authority Having Jurisdiction enforce your community's bylaws?

[kenjh]

I have never seen the bylaws ..until they were broken , enforced when someone has taken offence or is being petty , as a home owner ..for 30 plus years ..I have never seen a list of the laws ..nor been told where to find just what is applicable to me ..and to your question ..sannich selectively enforces the rules ...

[D.L.]

Earlier in the year my household received a barking complaint from animal control services, so those are being enforced in the CoV

[Mike K.]

I thought it was Animal Control acting on behalf of CoV?

[VicHockeyFan]

Well, before I'd ever file a complaint, I'd ask myself, is that infraction really bothering me, or I'm just jealous/envious/pissed off for no good reason.

I don't care if the next door neighbour has 311 cars piled up on his property, as long as they don't fall onto mine.

[Bob Fugger]

Well, before I'd ever file a complaint, I'd ask myself, is that infraction really bothering me, or I'm just jealous/envious/pissed off for no good reason.

I don't care if the next door neighbour has 311 cars piled up on his property, as long as they don't fall onto mine.

You'd care if you owned and wanted to sell.

[Sparky]

^ Good point.

[Bob Fugger]

...sannich selectively enforces the rules ...

This is very true. An unnamed Cypriot fellow that owns huge tracts of land in Saanich owns a lot and a rental next to my parents. The rental has essentially become an unapologetic hippie commune. My parents complained for various health and safety reasons: open fires, unsanitary waste disposal, unkempt noxious weeds, free range chickens that managed to make it in my mother's prized vegetable garden, etc. The neighbouring lot was interesting, too: apparently said landowner allowed an individual to rent the lot for the use of running a firewood retail and delivery operation. This isn't on Tennyson, Oak or some other semi-industrial Saanich Street: this is on a cul-de-sac in Gordon Head, near Arbutus Middle School. Hardly the correct zoning for a commercial chainsaw and truck operation.

My parents have been complaining to Saanich for years. Do you know what they did? SFA.

Do you know what I did? I read through all of the applicable bylaws and relevant enforcement sections, enumerated them into a petition - which my parents dutifully took around the neighbourhood, meeting neighbours who were more than grateful to sign - and submitted it to Saanich Mayor & Council, along with the threat of raining down a $hitstorm of local media (that Harriet Road disaster had just been in the news) down on them if they didn't get off of their ****ing asses and enforce the bylaws which they are paid to enforce.

And just like that, something is getting done - finally. But it goes to show that it really takes the risk of negative optics to get Saanich to move to do anything.

[VicHockeyFan]

You'd care if you owned and wanted to sell.

Ah, but what if I was looking to buy? The house two doors down is an opportunity.

[VicHockeyFan]

Do you know what I did? I read through all of the applicable bylaws and relevant enforcement sections, enumerated them into a petition - which my parents dutifully took around the neighbourhood, meeting neighbours who were more than grateful to sign - and submitted it to Saanich Mayor & Council, along with the threat of raining down a $hitstorm of local media (that Harriet Road disaster had just been in the news) down on them if they didn't get off of their ****ing asses and enforce the bylaws which they are paid to enforce.

And just like that, something is getting done - finally. But it goes to show that it really takes the risk of negative optics to get Saanich to move to do anything.

Hasn't this always been the case? You make the job of the person responsible more miserable by hearing from you, than it would be having to do something. People are lazy/scared/inept, you just have to tilt the balance of their job in your favour, and they will take the easier way out. When your parents politely complained, it was easier for that person to do nothing, compared to the minor irritation of your complaints. You tipped it.

[Bob Fugger]

Ah, but what if I was looking to buy? The house two doors down is an opportunity.

Human nature dictates that over the years (months?), you'd forget that you got the place for such a deal. And they you'd want to sell and you'd be pissed that you paid so much and are offered so little.

[Sparky]

Bob and VHF, this conversation is exactly my point.

Apparently we need to be a$$holes in order to have the rules applied. I will give you some more visual proof when I finish painting my garagemahal today. Yes it's in Saanich.

[Holden West]

Keep in mind that while some scoff at municipal enforcers cowering from their responsibilities there are some infractions we all prefer they'd keep ignoring. Like the illegal suites bylaw.

[Sparky]

Keep in mind that while some scoff at municipal enforcers cowering from their responsibilities there are some infractions we all prefer they'd keep overlooking. Like the illegal suites bylaw.

Why?

[Mike K.]

At our last office in Saanich we had filed several complaints about tractor trailers parking where strict 24 hour no parking signs were posted. The entire street would be lined with these trucks and trailers turning a two-way street with parking on one side into a one-way street.

It took multiple complaints and the span of a year for anything to happen there.

In Victoria things are typically quite different. When you place a call, action is taken fairly quickly.

[cakeman]

Why?

.. because Id hazard a guess that many (myself included) live in said illegal suites.. and that the requirements to bring many of these suites up to legal status would either cause rents to skyrocket or the supply of suites to dry up as landlords decided it wasnt worth the trouble.

So.. yeah, I dont mind at all if the muni's take a somewhat slack of on enforcement of some bylaws..

cakes..

[Mike K.]

.. because Id hazard a guess that many (myself included) live in said illegal suites.. and that the requirements to bring many of these suites up to legal status would either cause rents to skyrocket or the supply of suites to dry up as landlords decided it wasnt worth the trouble.

So.. yeah, I dont mind at all if the muni's take a somewhat slack of on enforcement of some bylaws..

cakes..

If you live in an illegal suite here are a couple of tips for you. When you call a handyman to do work for you, or the landlord does, make sure that it's someone who will not report you to City Hall as living in an illegal suite. My understanding is some of these guys tip off bylaw officers when they suspect a suite may be illegal. City Hall bylaw officers will not proactively come knocking on your door to check whether you live in an illegal suite so if they do they'll tell you "we've received a complaint." Who filed the complaint and when is not something they will disclose to you or your landlord.

While you may not see the bylaw officers any time soon after City Hall is alerted, once a complaint is filed bylaw officers will act on it sooner or later, and when they do, your landlord will have no choice but to bring your illegal suite up to code and have the property use altered. If the landlord cannot afford to make the changes or is unwilling to make them, you will most likely have to search for alternative digs.

[LJ]

In Langford there is a bylaw that states that you have to provide offstreet parking for any suite you have. Sounds good, but there is no requirement for the renter to use it.

Langford is very good about acting on complaints and reacting to problems.

I had the same concern Mike had with vehicles parking on both sides of the road and heavy construction trucks coming down the hill around a corner that would be unable to stop if a vehicle was going the other way up the hill. So we got no parking signs installed on one side of the road and they will act on complaints or random patrols to inform, ticket, whatever is required to get the offenders to cease and desist.

[Holden West]

.. because Id hazard a guess that many (myself included) live in said illegal suites.. and that the requirements to bring many of these suites up to legal status would either cause rents to skyrocket or the supply of suites to dry up as landlords decided it wasnt worth the trouble.

So.. yeah, I dont mind at all if the muni's take a somewhat slack of on enforcement of some bylaws..

cakes..

Yeah, that's what I was alluding to. We can't all be Sparkys with our cozy big houses. If you're a penny pinching student or single mom, that illegal suite is not an annoyance, it's a necessity.

[Sparky]

We can't all be Sparkys with our cozy big houses.

I expected a higher road from you R.