I liked your recent article about RVs, as I am one of those who does not care to see RVs, boats, trailers and excess vehicles parked at the front of residential property.
We moved a number of years ago to escape this same situation in Surrey, now we are starting to see the same thing happen here. It wasn’t like that when we first came here 10 years ago. RVs and boats parked right up to, or almost to, the curb or sidewalk. Current city bylaws allow these to be parked on residential property, not encroaching on public or city property. Some of these units just sit there, year after year. It seems that most folks either don’t know where their property line is, or don’t really care where it is.
Ideally, huge oversized units do not belong on small residential lots. That is what storage facilities are for. There are several of these facilities in the local area.
The other issue mentioned in the article has to do with messy and unsightly lots, with uncut grass, weeds and junk. This seems to be increasing over the past several years.
The city states that compliance is complaint driven but many residents are hesitant to complain about the actions of friends and neighbours. But in the meantime, the neighbourhood slowly deteriorates. In the corporate world, compliance comes about through inspection and identification of bylaw and regulatory requirements, followed up by corrective action. Shouldn’t the same apply to the municipal environment? It just seems logical that if the bylaw compliance folks spent a bit of time each week cruising through neighbourhoods, they would see the violators and take corrective action. One-half day per week doing this would make a big difference towards bylaw compliance.
The city has spent significant dollars erecting signs at the entrances to Parksville selling the concept that this a clean and desirable place to reside. On the surface that would be the case, however, a closer look shows a deteriorating environment of RVs, boats, trailers, and cars loaded with cardboard along with messy lots.
Richard Pacanowski
Parksville
