Thursday 28 June 2012
Wednesday 27 June 2012
Unhappy About Land use Bylaw
Unhappy RV owners pack hall
 Hatters attend the city's land use
bylaw open house on Tuesday evening at Higdon Hall. A large crowd formed around
city officials answering questions from local residents about the proposed RV
and boat parking changes.--NEWS PHOTO EMMA BENNETT |
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com Twitter: CollinGallant
City officials wanted to start a conversation about all areas of the proposed Land Use Bylaw but instead got an earful from a vocal crowd regarding changes to parking campers on residential driveways on Tuesday night.
Dozens of residents were waiting at Higdon Hall on Tuesday when the first of two public consultations into the draft land use bylaw opened.
Many voiced their displeasure with plans to restrict parking boats, campers and trailers on driveways.
The draft proposes that trailer be set back at least 3 metres (about 10 feet) from the sidewalk of a corner lot to help with visibility at crosswalks and intersections. Trailers on all lots would need to be setback 1.2 metres (about 4 feet) from common property lines.
"I think it's a slippery slope," said Brandon Kobley, who parks his trailer beside his Crestwood home and doesn't have room to meet the proposed rule.
"I have no problem with the safety issue but if it's beside my house and there's no visibility issue, what's the problem with having my camper on my property?"
Others went as far as to demand future property tax assessments exclude land they couldn't park on.
City staff and consultants are rewriting the Land Use Bylaw which currently places only minor restrictions on RV off-street parking but also covers all sorts of development rules throughout the city. Everything from business signs to what is and isn't allowed in different communities is covered in the 252-page draft.
Members of the city planning department and consultants will meet again with the public this afternoon from 4-7 p.m. A second set of meetings will take place in the fall.
The RV issue dominated the first session Tuesday.
"This is a very difficult issue to deal with," said Nick MacDonald of Meridian Planning Consultants, which has been contracted by the city.
The bylaw only deals with parking on private property Ñ not roads Ñ said MacDonald, who added that the severity of the problem seems to vary from street to street.
"Based on the feedback received, basically the message is that there shouldn't be rules relating to the front yard or back yard," said MacDonald.
"People generally agree that with the front yard, they agree that it should be on a driveway, first of all, and there should be some distance away (from the sidewalk)... What the number will be, we'll work that out, but it's not an easy issue."
Suggestions varied from different rules for different communities to leaving the bylaw as is, and visibility issues be left to the discretion of bylaw officers.
"I think the city has created its own problem by making the lots so small in new developments," said Ray Shannon, who feels many in his neighbourhood of Taylor would be affected by the changes.
"We're talking about 35-foot-lots and they've created the parking problem by making lots unnecessarily small."
The issue of RV parking has grown over the last several years, said Jeannie Gartly of the planning department, who says the city has fielded numerous complaints about trailer hitches that sometimes protrude onto the sidewalk, or campers that sit next to fences or in direct view of neighbours' windows.
RVs can often times be bigger than sheds, decks or auxiliary buildings Ñ which all have a 1.2 metre setback Ñ and can be taller as well. To put a 10-foot-tall trailer right up a six-foot fence would affect neighbouring properties and be a safety issue, she said.
Overall, said Gartly, the goal of the consultation is to find out what Hatters think about the issue and write those opinions into the legislation before it's approved later this year.
Tuesday 26 June 2012
Wednesday 20 June 2012
Tuesday 19 June 2012
Wilford Laurier
I think this is one email that needs to be forwarded until every Canadian with a computer receives it.
The year is 1907, one hundred and five + years ago.
READ PRINT UNDER PICTURE!
The year is 1907, one hundred and five + years ago.
READ PRINT UNDER PICTURE!
Wilfred Laurier ideas on Immigrants and being a Canadian in 1907.
'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith
Becomes a Canadian and assimilates himself to us,
He shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else,
For it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed,
Or birthplace, or origin.
But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet a Canadian, and nothing but a Canadian...
There can be no divided allegiance here.
Any man who says he is a Canadian, but something else also, isn't a Canadian at all.
We have room for but one flag, the Canadian flag...
And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the Canadian people.'
Wilfred Laurier 1907
Every Canadian citizen needs to read this!
KEEP THIS MESSAGE MOVING
Thursday 14 June 2012
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