A plan is emerging for three local governments in this area to boost bylaw enforcement.
Discussions are underway for the District of Houston, the Village of Burns Lake and the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako to share the costs of an enforcement officer who would be hired by the regional district.
The District of Houston council has already authorized spending up to $57,600 to support the position.
This “is assuming that it would be a 50/50 partnership with the regional district. With that said, if Burns Lake joins into the service, our share would be reduced to a one-third split of both the resources and costs involved in supporting a full-time bylaw enforcement officer,” said District of Houston chief administrative officer Gerald Pinchbeck.
Currently bylaw enforcement is conducted in-house by existing staffers but the goal is to be more proactive rather than reactive in dealing with specific situations and in responding to complaints from the public.
That goal of being proactive rather than reactive has also been expressed by Burns Lake and the regional district.
“Additional capacity will allow for more time spent on bylaw issues – both reactive and proactive,” said regional district administrator Curtis Helgesen.
“The position would also add to our capacity to be able to update some of our bylaws,” noted Burns Lake chief administrative officer Sheryl Worthing.
She did add that the village is now waiting for more details of the plan before any final decision is made.
The regional district now has a .25 full time equivalent employee working on bylaw enforcement for its coverage area which extends from west of Smithers east along Hwy16 and north to Fort St. James.
The issue of bylaw enforcement has come up several times at Houston council meetings in the past year with one resident expressing her concern that residents are not applying for building permits and, as a result, any improvements aren’t added to the assessed value of the property.
That means those improvements aren’t reflected in property taxes, resulting in a revenue loss to the District, she added.
A second resident told council that unsightly properties within Houston are deterring people from moving here as well as devaluing neighbourhoods.
He was concerned that the properties were not in compliance with District bylaws and that the bylaws are not being enforced.
“He further emphasized the snowball effect this may evoke as neighbours may not feel motivated to clean up their own properties if their neighbours’ properties are unsightly,” council minutes added.