By Lexi McFarlane, Times Chronicle
A recommendation by Town of Oliver staff to maintain an existing bylaw as currently written has been adopted by Council.
At the October 6 Committee of the Whole meeting, staff addressed the current traffic bylaw concerning the parking of motorhomes. The bylaw currently does not permit the parking of motorhomes on public boulevards on an ongoing basis.
An unnamed resident’s request that Council consider an amendment to the bylaw prompted the staff’s evaluation and presentation of subsequent findings. Director of Development Services Paul Sizemore noted that there were additional circumstances behind the resident’s request, most importantly that the resident used it as their everyday means of transportation.
“It (is) a regular personal-use vehicle; it’s their daily driver, primary vehicle,” Sizemore said.
The evaluation by Town staff compared current Oliver bylaws related to motorhomes to bylaws from neighbouring municipalities, including Osoyoos, Summerland, Penticton, Princeton, and West Kelowna. While there were variances observed in each town’s motorhome parking bylaws, generally, the standard is that residents of Okanagan municipalities are not permitted to park motorhomes on public boulevards.
When looking at municipalities elsewhere in British Columbia, it was discovered that many of them regulate motorhomes similarly, meaning the Town of Oliver’s bylaws are generally in line with standards across the province.
The evaluation also determined that motorhomes of the length that the unnamed resident has are “relatively common” in Oliver, and would hence open the door to several instances of boulevard parking of motorhomes. The impact of a bylaw change would be rather significant.
Councillor Terry Schafer asked about a previous policy that applied to larger vehicles such as semi-trailers, wanting to know if it would be relevant.
“We did have either a policy or a bylaw (previously),” Schafer said. “Should that not just be revisited and brought up to speed, or do we get rid of that one, to have a new one?”
Director Sizemore replied that this report didn’t consider that, and was purely “informational” and focused on the current bylaw only.
Councillor Aimee Grice wondered about so-called “camper vans”, such as the classic Volkswagen Bus vehicle, and how they might be impacted.
“That has to do with how the vehicle ends up getting classified when it gets registered with the Province,” Sizemore said. “If a vehicle is identified as a motor (home) in that registration, then the bylaw officer is able to pull that up and see that that vehicle is considered a recreational vehicle.”
All four council members in attendance were in favour of not editing the bylaw, including Mayor Martin Johansen, who concurred that doing so would only make things more difficult overall.
“I think, when you start to try and craft a bylaw to allow nuances to happen, it just gets grey, and it becomes very difficult, and then you get into these situations where you try to make a determination,” Johansen said.
“I think it’s better cut-and-dry; that’s just the way it is.”
The motion, moved by Councillor Petra Veintimilla and seconded by Schafer, was carried unanimously.
