Further amendments to draft Community Standards Bylaw

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Sunny South News

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

Following a request for more information, Coalhurst town council has further amended a draft bylaw on community standards.

Bylaw 457-24 – or the draft Community Standards Bylaw – would consolidate several of the existing bylaws and policies to help streamline the town’s governing documents and simplify it’s approach to the bylaws and policies. If passed, the bylaw would not contain any new rules or regulations, but it would enable residents t find information on a number of topics relating to community standards in a single document.

The proposed Community Standards Bylaw addresses unsightly property, large commercial vehicle storage, control of debris, weed and grass control, graffiti, storage of derelict vehicles, noise, weapons discharge, sidewalk and boulevard maintenance, use of municipal property, smoking and vaping, and door-to-door sales, in one comprehensive bylaw. If passed, it would rescind the following bylaws:

• Smoke and/or Vape Free Playgrounds and Athletic Fields Bylaw No. 432-22 

• Noise Control Bylaw No. 315-06 

• Unsightly Premises Bylaw No. 303-04 

• Weapon Control Bylaw No. 291-02 

• Rollerblades, Skateboards, Golf Clubs, Golf Balls, and Off-Highway Vehicles Bylaw No. 288-02 

• Weed Control Bylaw No. 116-86

Additionally, motions would need to be passed to rescind the following policies:

• Boulevard and Alley Maintenance Policy No. 32-01-03 

• Unsightly Premises Action Policy No. 66-02-01 

• Weed Control Policy No. 62-01-01

After the proposed bylaw received first reading during council’s regular Sept. 3, 2024, before it was referred to Committee of the Whole, during which several recommendations – which included requests for more information and amendments to the bylaw – related to the bylaw were adopted at the town’s regular Oct. 15, 2024 meeting. Administration has brought the bylaw back to council with further information of those requested items during their regular Dec. 17, 2024 meeting.

One of those items concerned definitions for boulevards and utility rights-of-way as it relates to section 2.3.3. In response, administration added a definition for boulevard to the bylaw, noting that  a utility rights-of-way is defined by the Alberta Land Surveyor’s Association as “an agreement that confers on an individual, company or  municipality the right to use a landowner’s property in some way. While these agreements grant rights, they also have the effect of partially restricting an owner’s use of the affected portions of land.”

As boulevards are owned by the municipality, and requirements for adjacent property owners to maintain them is already listed within the bylaw, it was deemed not needed to mention utility right-of-way as they relate to boulevards.

When asked why they would exclude sidewalk from the boulevard definition, Larry Randal, director of legislative services for the town, said the wording was taken from other municipality’s bylaws.

“It is written the way it is because sidewalks are dealt with separately and exclusively and explicitly,” said Randal.

Another item has town administration research section 4.2, the recreational use of public infrastructure and green space, in its entirety as it relates to other enforceable bylaws. The Town of Coaldale’s Traffic bylaw prohibits bike riders on sidewalks over the age of 10, while the City of Lethbridge’s Regulation for Public Parks Bylaw allows bike riders only on pathways or facilities specifically set apart for that purpose. Lethbridge’s bylaw also prohibits motorized vehicles on pathways, unsafe speeds, or use of pathways without due care and attention for consideration of other users

When asked if biking on sidewalks be considered a dangerous or nuisance activity, town CPO John Herasemluk said if a bike rider was riding aggressively on a sidewalk, posing a danger or hazard to others in the sidewalk, it would be included.

“I’m not necessarily saying that bicycles are not to be ridden on the sidewalk. As a parent, I wouldn’t want my children riding their bikes and scooters on the street. As a driver, cyclists that ride in the middle of the road kind of drive me nuts,” said Herasemluk. “That definition covers what you just said, plus would allow for some bike riding on the sidewalk.”

Council passed a motion to the requirement for Coalhurst property owners to remove snow and ice from adjacent sidewalks within 48 hours of accumulation be retained  in the Traffic Bylaw and also placed within the Community Standards Bylaw, with clear instructions to not place snow and ice on municipal property, and to add a provision which allows the town to cause the snow to be removed at the offending property owner’s expense.

Council passed a motion to approve the definition of “boulevard” in the bylaw.

Council passed a motion to include additional provisions that prohibit more than one unregistered motor vehicle from being parked on a residential property in the bylaw.

Council passed a motion to include a definition of “Dangerous/nuisance activities” in the bylaw and create a subsection in section 4 to include the prohibition of partaking in dangerous activities.

Council passed a motion to request administration to benchmark and research fines applicable to the new Community Standards Bylaw, and report back to Council with its recommendations for the first offences and subsequent offences for each section within Schedule A.