A bylaw proposal that’s about to go to council could make life easy for recreational vehicle owners, as long as they know how to park the big rig and they know where their property line is.
Following a fracas last year caused by a couple of instigators who made dozens of complaints about RV parking, Maple Ridge staff has a new policy awaiting council’s OK.
If you live in a rural area, you can park any number of your RVs on your lot, regardless of size, as along as you own them or an immediate family member owns the vehicles.
In the urban area, same deal applies, except you’re only allowed to park one vehicle in your front yard, which has to be on the drive and has to be 1.5 metres from your front property line.
The proposals came from an open house last spring and are about to go to a regular council meeting.
The changes to the zoning bylaw will also allow one tent on a property, provided it’s tied down.
Council also discussed allowing property owners to store RVs for their immediate family members.
Council reviewed the bylaw change at its Monday workshop meeting, then sent it off to a regular evening meeting, in addition to a proposed new bylaw complaint policy clarifying who can complain to the district about their messy neighbours.
A new policy that council is about to vote on proposes that only three bylaw complaints from each property be alllowed, per year.
A previous clause of limiting complaints to only within 100 metres of the complainant’s residence was ditched because of the possibility that a complainant could be ID’d.
The bylaw complaint change also was a result of the uproar over RVs, when one person filed 30 or 40 complaints with the district over recreational vehicle storage.
That volume of complaints almost overwhelmed the bylaw department, council heard at its Monday workshop.
Different rules apply in the downtown area where the bylaw department can proactively enforce bylaws without waiting for complaints.
The policy will be reviewed in a year.