All Roelof Rietel wants to do is fix his wooden boat.
The Cinnibar, built in 1957, is a retirement project, one of many he’s been slowly chipping away at along the foreshore of the South Alouette River in Pitt Meadows.
Battered and bruised, the vessel, docked west of Harris Road, has had her share of troubles.
She keeled over in a snow storm in 2008, sunk, was retrieved and spent many months languishing in the rain because the boat house that sheltered her collapsed.
Rietel, who owns the foreshore, or water side, of the dike for several hundred metres along the river, has run afoul of provincial and city authorities since 2005.
“I’m getting rather tired of this. I’m the only one who is being harassed,” says Rietel, who has chronic rheumatoid arthritis that’s forced him to work on his retirement projects at a leisurely pace.
Rietel’s troubles with the city began in 2005, when he towed in the barge to build a house on. The barge hit the river bed after a winter storm in January 2009, along with a flotilla of junk that included an old Volkswagen van, a shed, piles of wood and a shipping container.
After repeated warnings from the city, the province and federal officials, the barge was finally towed from its moorings in October 2010.
City officials hoped that was the end of their dealings with Rietel, until the bylaws department received a complaint on Oct. 31 about a boathouse being constructed by him.
An updated land use bylaw, which came into effect Oct. 4 allows the city to regulate activities in the South Alouette, forbids the construction of boat houses in the river.
City staff told Rietel to stop building the boathouse. He refused, but was issued a stop-work order and fined twice.
Rietel feels he is being picked on and points to the other boat houses in the South Alouette. Those boat houses, constructed before the bylaw came into force, are “grandfathered”.
“The boat needs to be protected. It needs a roof over it. It is well worth saving,” said Rietel, who claims he began building the boat house more than a year ago, well before the new bylaw was adopted.
Since Rietel has repeatedly ignored city orders to stop construction and tear down the boat shed, staff decided to take the matter to court.
At a committee meeting Tuesday, council supported the decision to seek an injunction in Supreme Court against Rietel and co-owner Brent Mehl. Council told Rietel he was not being unfairly targeted.
Coun. Bruce Bell asked Rietel if he was willing “cease and desist”, but got no answer.
“As newly elected officials of the city, we have to enforce our bylaws,” Bell said.
The city is set to formally consent to begin legal action against Rietel and Mehl at a council meeting next week.