Div. 2 Councilor Tyler Hazelwood says he's in favour of changes to the nuisance abatement bylaw. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Messy yards

R.M. of Prince Albert aims to clean up messy property bylaw

Jun 17, 2019 | 8:43 AM

The Rural Municipality (R.M.) of Prince Albert is proposing sweeping changes to its nuisance abatement bylaw, which deals mainly with unsightly yards.

The need to update the bylaw was discussed at council’s meeting June 13. Administrator Roxanne Roy told paNOW she had not had any issues related to enforcing the bylaw, but explained she felt rate payers needed more clarity regarding what the bylaw covers.

“For example like unsightly premises and you know having garbage blown on to a neighbouring property. And then you have the farmers going in there with their machines, and they are trampling over the garbage,” she said.

The bylaw has not been updated since 2005. The discussion surrounding the need to update the bylaw was started as council considered what to do about two properties in the R.M. which had generated complaints One of those properties is located on the north side of Highway 302 east.

“This has been ongoing for the last 20 years,” Roy said.”There has been letters sent out and now council passed a resolution, where an order to remedy is going to be sent to him.”

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Under the terms of the order, the property owner will be given a set amount of days to clean up the premises. Failure to meet the deadline will result in the R.M. hiring its own contractor to clean up the mess and the property owner will then receive the bill. Roy said the costs could range from $15,000 to $100,000.

“It all depends on the contractor we hire because they have their own set rates,” she said.

Division two councilor Tyler Hazelwood was among the councilors who spoke in favour of the changes to the bylaw. He said there was nothing in the current bylaw to deal with fire prevention.

“If a place is a fire hazard, like if a fire truck could not get to the house because of junk piled in the roadway or property; or if there are out buildings out back that are not accessible by the fire department,” he said.

Division five councilor Wayne Acorn spoke out against the changes. He said he could understand the need to address garbage blowing from one property to another, but explained a farm property needs to be treated differently than a city property.

“As long as it’s neat and everything, I don’t know why somebody would complain,” he said. “I mean some farmers, we’ve got equipment sitting around and you know we are keeping some of that steel for parts,” he said.

Acorn added he also felt uncomfortable voting for changes to a bylaw, when he himself was not fully aware of what the bylaw was.

“”Lots of times at council, I find they don’t give enough information. They’ll say well it’s this bylaw, well lots of councilors don’t know what that bylaw is,” he said.

In order to give councilors time to consider the changes needed, a motion to change the bylaw was tabled to council’s next meeting July 11.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell