Cool treehouse will stand, but officials want it safer
RDOS staff attempting to meet owners in the middle on bylaw issue
Atreehouse on the West Bench that was built without a permit will live to see another day, the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen decided Thursday.
The structure, which caught RDOS’s staff’s eye back in the summer, was built larger than the regulated 10 square metres and therefore required a building permit. It also lacks safety measures such as railings. The RDOS chose to implement a notice on title for the property.
“This one hit the media, so we received quite a bit of heat on it,” said Michael Brydon, director for the West Bench area.
“A lot of people are saying that this is the big, bad RDOS, and this is just a tax grab.”
Although Brydon knows the owners of the property on Newton Drive, he called the situation a lesson learned the hard way when it comes to bylaws.
“We need to have building bylaws and the building code enforced for the worst possible situation,” he said.
He further stated that he supported moving forward with the motion that the RDOS implement a notice on title that would remove the RDOS from any liability until the homeowners complied with regulations, which, as Brydon said, they are working on doing.
“My understanding is that we vote this through now, but if they get in here and do an application, we can set this aside while they work through this process,” Narmata Director Karla Kozakevich said.
Another option the RDOS could have pursued would have been a court injunction that would require the owners to either change or completely remove the structure.