Crackdown on bylaw busters
Matthew Van Dongen
http://www.thespec.com/news/local/ar...-bylaw-busters
A beefed-up bylaw enforcement experiment is slowly tidying up some of the city’s ugliest properties, says a new city report.
The city hired six new enforcement officers last July for Project Compliance, an 18-month crackdown on bylaw busters across wards 1 through 8.
The pilot project doesn’t end until November, but in an update to the planning committee on Tuesday, staff reported seeing encouraging signs of “voluntarily compliance” from property owners.
Highlights of the crackdown over the past year include:
• More than 550 city orders to fix property standards violations, with property owners complying about half the time;
• More than 370 orders for yard maintenance and a 60 per cent compliance rate;
• 70 bylaw charges laid;
• Contractors hired to complete cleanup work needed for 38 city orders;
• About $43,000 in fees and fines collected. That represents about 10 per cent of the $413,000 cost of the enforcement program so far.
Planning staff said at the meeting that enforcement officers have had problems getting access to rental units without search warrants.