By Shaun Penner

County searching for feedback on new Community Standards Bylaw

Feb 28, 2019 | 4:30 AM

With the creation of the new Community Standards Bylaw by the County of Grande Prairie, they will soon be looking for input from residents on everything the bylaw should or should not include.

The new guidelines will essentially bring 11 different areas of public safety and comfort into consideration under one new bylaw. The areas covered include:

• Urban Addressing (requiring each property to have a house number for emergency services)
• Unsightly premises
• Bullying and hazing
• Graffiti
• Noise
• Nuisance
• Use of recreational and medical cannabis
• Waste management (taking garbage cans off the road after garbage day)
• False alarms to fire, medical and police services
• Fire hydrants
• Sidewalks

“Many municipalities have Community Standards Bylaws, they are not a new concept,” explains Manager of Enforcement Services, Superintendent Stuart Rempel. “It’s an omnibus bylaw for being a good neighbor really. So rather than having them scattered over (many) different bylaws, we thought ‘let’s put it all together and make it one-stop shopping’.”

Rempel also notes that this is something the County has been working on over the last five years, as the area has gone from mostly rural to having many urbanized areas. By updating and centralizing these regulations, it also modernizes the bylaws to keep communities safer and more livable.

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The County passed the first reading of the new bylaw at Monday’s council meeting and is now looking for feedback from residents to determine if any modifications are needed, what else should be considered, as well as how soon and often the new bylaw should be reviewed once it is put into law.

The County will be setting up a survey on their engagement website from March 4-24, for anyone wanting to share their ideas. The County will also be presenting the new guidelines at various community events during that span.

“They’ll have the opportunity to put that feedback in,” said Rempel. “What we really want to say to people, is that the last five years, we have heard you, we’ve been listening, we’ve built this based on the need and the request. Now we want to send it out to people and say ‘Hey, have we got it right? And have we missed anything’.”

Once all the feedback is collected, it will be presented to council for second and third reading with changes and amendments based on the needs and desires of residents.

Rempel adds he is hoping to have the new Community Standards Bylaw in place by May long weekend (May 18-20) for special events and the opening of campgrounds in the area.