BARRHEAD - Woodlands County councillors passed third reading during their July 20 meeting on a bylaw creating a new enforcement review committee whose job it will be to hear any appeals on orders issued by the county’s contracted peace officers and development officers.
Council also passed a motion appointing Jeremy Wilhelm, Bruce Prestidge and Dave Kusch to the committee, with Devin Williams serving as an alternate.
As explained in a background report, when one of the county’s peace officers or development officers issues a clean-up order, a "stop work” order or another similar order under the county’s Land-Use Bylaw or Community Standards Bylaw, residents have the ability under the Municipal Government Act (MGA) to appeal such orders.
In the past, Woodlands County has had the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board (SDAB) review any appealed orders.
During a discussion between administration and one of the county’s peace officers, however, it was suggested that residents might perceive the SDAB of being biased if they have to deal with a development-specific appeal and then an order on the same parcel.
As such, it was suggested that Woodlands County consider a bylaw establishing a specific committee of council to review appeals.
Besides eliminating any possible perception of bias, the benefits of such a committee include a shorter timeline to review appeals of orders and some potential cost savings to the county.
Peace officer Sgt. Dallas Choma explained that because all the members of the SDAB are from outside of the county, they must be paid honourariums and travel expenses whenever they come together.
"It costs a lot of money to bring these people in,” he said.
Manager of planning and development Joan Slootweg also pointed out the SDAB usually has legal counsel sit in on reviews of appeals, so the process can be quite expensive.
“This would be significantly more streamlined. It would be just calling three council members forward to review the order and say yes or no,” she said.
Councillors passed the first and second readings on Bylaw 590 22 – Enforcement Review Bylaw during the June 22 meeting.
However, Coun. Wilhelm argued against moving to third reading due to the absence of reeve John Burrows. He also wanted to speak to Lac Ste. Anne County councillors to determine if they had any issues with their own enforcement review committee.
At the July 20 meeting, Burrows said he thought creating the committee would streamline some of the municipality’s processes and potentially save them some money.
“It looks like a good bylaw,” he said. “I have nothing other than that to say about it.”
Wilhelm said he had also spoken to two Lac Ste. Anne County councillors about their committee; one couldn’t recall being at such a committee meeting and the other believed he had only attended one such meeting in four years.
Wilhelm indicated that basically relieved any concerns he had about the committee creating undue stress for councillors or administration.
