By Madeline Baker, Times Chronicle
The following are news briefs from the Oct. 11 meeting of Osoyoos town council.
Ticket fines may go up
The Town of Osoyoos may raise municipal ticket fines for unpermitted use of a property from $500 to $1,000, the maximum allowable fine under the Community Charter in hopes of deterring property owners from offering short-term rentals that do not comply with town bylaws and usage allowances.
Short-term rentals have become a hot-button issue throughout B.C. during a crisis of both housing availability and cost throughout the province, and resort municipalities like Osoyoos have naturally seen their own spikes in the number of properties being used for short-term rentals, often in contravention of local bylaws.
In Osoyoos, the proliferation of short-term rental properties has also led to a shortage of permanent housing for residents that has had secondary detrimental effects on local businesses. The newly proposed bylaw will cover unpermitted use of all property types in all zones, but was primarily developed to curb illegal rentals.
The ticketing process will still give property owners two chances to bring their property into compliance before a ticket is served, with town staff first sending a letter to request that the property be brought into compliance voluntarily. If that request is ignored, the town’s legal counsel will then demand that the owners comply with the town’s bylaws.
Only when those two letters do not lead to the property being brought into compliance do bylaw officers serve municipal tickets to the property owners, at which point they are charged the unpermitted use fine. From that point forward, every day that the building remains non-compliant is counted as a separate offence.
At the October 11 council meeting where the proposed change was presented, Councillor Brian Harvey pointed out that the Strata Act has amended its maximum fine to $1,000 and many local strata have already adopted the new rate, so changing the municipal fine would also provide consistency across different forms of property ownership in Osoyoos.
Harvey and the rest of town council unanimously voted to give the proposal its first, second, and third readings, which means that it will be eligible for adoption at a future meeting.
Jr. hockey lease renewed
The Town of Osoyoos has renewed its five-year lease with Osoyoos Jr. Hockey Inc. in advance of the current lease’s expiration on October 12, meaning that the Junior “B” Osoyoos Coyotes are guaranteed another half decade of play at Sun Bowl Arena.
The lease brings in just over $16,000 in revenue for the town between use of the arena and food concession and installation of ice logos.
Permissive Tax Exemption
The Permissive Tax Exemption bylaw for 2023, which lays out the list of properties exempted from taxation by the Town of Osoyoos, has been adopted without any changes to the list previously reported by the Times Chronicle.
