As snow continues to accumulate in Okotoks, residents are reminded to be aware snow removal efforts and ensure plows have room to work.
Okotoks coun. Carrie Fischer said it’s concerning when vehicles are left on the road for days after a snowfall, particularly when crews begin doing snow removal.
“It’s partially a safety issue, and an operational issue, because operations people are moving around vehicles, they’re leaving snow swales in the wake, so that creates its own issues,” said Fischer. “I hear a lot of complaints around snow clearance and people parked on the street in front of somebody’s home and snow removal or sweeping comes in, and they’re not able to clean that spot because there’s a vehicle there.”
Town bylaws state a vehicle is considered abandoned when it hasn’t moved for 72 hours, she said. In some cases, vehicles are sitting on the side of the road covered in snow weeks after the last snowfall, clearly indicating they haven’t moved, she said.
It’s an ongoing issue without a clear solution, and she said the Town needs to consider how to address it.
Municipal enforcement manager Tim Stobbs said bylaw officers do what they can to get cars off the street, especially on snow plow routes and when a vehicle is blocking a drainage basin that needs to be cleared.
“We get a hold of the person if we have to, to get them to remove it,” said Stobbs. “Or if it’s been there long enough, then we remove it. We very rarely need to move cars.”
He said municipal enforcement is generally successful at contacting the registered owner to have a vehicle moved. It’s been years since anything was towed, he said.
Stobbs acknowledged there are vehicles throughout Okotoks left parked on streets for longer than Town bylaws allow. Sometimes people have gone on vacation or haven’t left the house for more than 72 hours, or a vehicle may not be in working condition, he said.
Municipal enforcement won’t typically act unless there has been a resident complaint, he said.
In many cases, vehicles parked longer than 72 hours are also illegally parked, either too close to a driveway or stop sign, or are unregistered, said Stobbs. In those cases, municipal enforcement is able to deal with the vehicles immediately, usually before the 72-hour mark, he said.
Complaints about not being able to plow the street are another matter, he said.
“Unless Transportation says a car is impeding its ability to plow, we generally don’t go after them,” said Stobbs. “Most times we’re not even aware. We see them plowed in, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t live there or belong there.”
Without complaints, municipal enforcement isn’t going to swoop in and start removing vehicles, he said.
“The law is black and white, and we as humans are the ones that make the law grey and workable for us,” said Stobbs. “The lowest behaviour you can have is just obeying the law, but we have to understand there are circumstances in every case where we have to mitigate some of those situations, and that’s where humans become involved.”
It’s not enough for Fischer, who said there’s a philosophical issue around the complaint-driven system in many ways. While she understands it would take a lot of resources to actively pursue violations rather than respond to complaints, she said there are some drawbacks.
“I think it also creates animosity and confusion and anger and upset between neighbours in communities when it’s solely on a complaint-driven basis,” said Fischer. “You get this awful feeling in the community that neighbours are telling on neighbours.”
She said there aren’t any clear answers to handle the problem, but it’s time the Town started talking about solutions.
“I think we need to have a conversation around what this means for Okotoks, what are we doing with it, and it needs to be a community conversation,” said Fischer. “When we put bylaws in place we have to think about how they’re going to be enforced.”
