Increased enforcement and continued education of proper recreational vehicle use in Mulhurst Bay is becoming a larger priority for the County of Wetaskiwin council.
During its Aug. 11 planning and economic development meeting council approved different courses of action for five proposals stemming from a 2015 complaint made by a group of Mulhurst Bay residents in letter form, addressed to council.
The first being a follow up by a peace officer for each complaint made within the community. The second proposal is education through newsletters, the County of Wetaskiwin website and newspapers.
Development officer Jarvis Grant says administration is recommending council direct administration to distribute an education document strictly to the residents of the area, for the third proposal. “We would tweak it a bit and make sure it dealt with county residential and urban residential lots.”
The fourth proposal is enforcement through county permits and bylaws; and the fifth proposal speaks to being proactive with enforcement rather than the current complaint-driven reactive system. “Bylaws are enforced by bylaw personnel whenever they patrol our area,” said Grant, reading the proposal recommended by the residents.
Council approved support of the first three proposals and decided to include four and five in its 2016 strategic planning meeting.
In the letter to council from the group of Mulhurst Bay residents Grant says a so-called “top five offending properties” were also listed.
“Every one of them appears to be in contravention,” said assistant CAO Rod Hawken.
Letters were sent out telling the properties to come into compliance with bylaw and bylaw officers are checking into a few other properties as well.