Fines waived for Vernon couple living in RV on ALR land

Dec 12, 2023 | 5:00 AM

The people who were issued fines while living in a recreational vehicle on an Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) property in Vernon will be getting their money back.

In November, Vernon city council amended it’s policies to allow trailers and recreational vehicles to be used as secondary dwellings on ALR as per the provincial regulations.

However, a couple who were living in a trailer on Eagle Road — Lee and Sondra Watkins — and were the catalyst for the policy to be updated, were still issued fines while the city investigated updating the bylaws.

At the regular meeting Monday, Dec. 11, Councillor Akbal Mund issued a Notice of Motion to have those fees waived, and council decided to discuss the motion during that meeting.

“What I’d like to do is rescind the fines levied against the property at 530 Eagle Road because it’s approximately $2,800,” Mund stated.

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Mayor Victor Cumming was not in favour of the motion.

“I think this doesn’t make any sense at all. I think we have bylaws that are in place when they’re in place, and therefore they’re knowingly doing things that are not allowed, and we ask our bylaw [officers] to follow up on things that are not allowed,” Cumming stated.

“I think it doesn’t make sense then afterwards to change the bylaw — which is fine we can do that — to then make it retroactive.”

The mayor compared it to changing a stretch of road from 60 km/h to 80 km/h, and then going back to refund tickets issued to people who were speeding when the original speed limit was in place.

He also compared it to existing secondary suite bylaws, and that though they will be permitted when policies change, currently they are not permitted and fines should stand.

“For me, it’s a point in time,” Cumming said.

“When change happens in the future, it affects the future, when you have bylaws in place for the past, then it affects the past.”

Mund responded by claiming the city had begun exploring changes to the bylaw in December of 2022, but it was not prioritized so the policy was unchanged in August 2023 when the fines were issued.

To that, Cumming stated administration was asked to bring forward text amendments in 2022, but that didn’t mean they would be necessarily supported by council, and the bylaws were still in place until officially changed by a council vote in November.

The motion was put to a vote where it passed with a vote of four to two, with Cumming and Councillor Brian Guy voting in opposition.

Councillor Kari Gares did not participate in the discussion or the vote due to a perceived conflict of interest.

by Liam Verster

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