Fines proposed for bad neighbours

Too much noise or trash on your property could cost you $250

Be a good neighbour — or get a $250 fine.

A new penalty for a range of civic offences, such as maintaining unsightly premises and prompting noise complaints from neighbours, will be considered today by Kelowna city council.

“Properties causing significant ongoing nuisances can disrupt whole neighbourhoods and negatively affect the enjoyment and peace of residents in surrounding areas,” the city’s risk manager, Lance Kayfish, writes in a report to council.

The proposed good-neighbour bylaw would amalgamate and update several existing bylaws and provide for the levying of “nuisance abatement fees” to the owners of properties where there are repeated problems.

A $250 fine would be issued if police, bylaw or fire department crews are sent to the same property more than once within a 24-hour period, or more than three times within a year.

That’s said to be consistent with similar nuisance-control measures already in place in West Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon and Surrey.

“The proposed fee is intended to motivate owners to work diligently to obtain compliance at the property promptly,” Kayfish writes.

Such fees, it’s suggested, would apply to the owner of the property rather than just the residents.

“That is intended to motivate property owners that reside on site as well as landlords that may not take an active role in the day-to-day conditions or activities on the property they are legally responsible for as an owner,” Kayfish says.

Some flexibility is recommended in the application of fees, however.

“Consideration will be given to the circumstances of the service calls, possible neighbourhood disputes and the extent of the non-compliant nuisances,” Kayfish says.

A separate proposal going to council is for a change in the noise-control bylaw, requiring construction activity to cease at 9 p.m. instead of 10 p.m.

Allowing construction to proceed until 10 p.m. without an exemption puts Kelowna among the “most relaxed” municipalities in Canada with respect to such regulation, council will hear.