If you don’t like the law limiting the size of recreational vehicles on lots and you’re mad as heck and won’t take it anymore – put your name on the list.
You can do that by going to http://www.purplesoundmusic.com/bylaws.htm, a website set up by Jacques Blackstone, one of the fighters against Maple Ridge’s bylaw restricting recreational vehicles stored at residences to 7.5 metres long.
Once he’s heard from as many people as possible, Blackstone will include the forms as part of his presentation to district council to change the rules.
Maple Ridge district has been besieged by RV owners miffed at receiving removal orders for the vacations-on-wheels from the bylaws department.
Council has put on hold any enforcement action pending a May 2 meeting with owners.
Blackstone is happy to see the controversy after waging his own battle over movie trailers he stores on his 1.2-acre lot on 128th Avenue in central Maple Ridge.
He runs a video business in the movie industry and brings the trailers to movie locations, which means they’re only stored on the property on a intermittent basis. Recently, he added a semi-tractor.
He’s been given two removal orders for his three trailers – orders which he’s ignored so far.
“I’m not complying because I don’t agree with the bylaw,” said Blackstone, who received his last removal order in mid-March.
He wants council to change its bylaw so that more than one complaint is required to trigger enforcement action. Instead, when the district gets a complaint, bylaw officers should check with all neighbours within the line-of-sight of the offending vehicle.
Only if there’s a majority consensus against the vehicle should enforcement begin.
Otherwise, the district is acting like a bully, he said.
“This will stop any malicious calls from a single individual with a personal agenda, vendetta or plainly acting out of malice,” says Blackstone’s letter.