New Westminster will explore whether it should take action against derelict vehicles.
At its Oct. 19 meeting, council supported a motion to have staff bring potential amendments to the city’s unsightly premises bylaw to council for its consideration. The purpose of the amendments would be to create a ban on the outdoor storage of derelict vehicles.
The motion, put forward by Mayor Jonathan Cote, stated that derelict vehicles are commonly recognized to be unsightly. It noted that derelict vehicle bans exist in other Metro Vancouver municipalities, including Burnaby, Coquitlam, Richmond, Langley and North Vancouver.
“This relates to an issue that was brought forward from a resident in New Westminster that I guess has a neighbour that has multiple vehicles parked in the back and front yard,” Cote said. “Unlike a lot of neighbouring municipalities, the bylaws in New Westminster don’t really cover this particular issue, which from my understanding has not allowed us to be a little bit more proactive with this situation.”
No decision on whether to amend the unsightly premises bylaw has been made at this time.
“The only direction to go forward was to actually come to council to see if we’d be interested in having a look at our zoning bylaws, look at neighbouring municipalities and provide an update,” Cote said.
Follow Theresa McManus on Twitter @TheresaMcManus
Email tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
