THE District of West Vancouver is taking two British Properties homeowners to court after illegal landscaping work on their property led to a landslide and sediment dump in a fish-bearing creek.
District staff were alerted to the homeowners dumping truckloads of fill onto their property at 2785 Chelsea Close in February and issued a stop-work order. The homeowners applied for a permit but continued the landscaping work in defiance of the stop-work order, according to district spokeswoman Donna Powers. Then on March 21, the slope work allegedly triggered a landslide into a tributary of Rodgers Creek.
In total, the district is alleging 56 counts of violations of its soil removal and regulation bylaw, building bylaw, watercourse protection bylaw and creek bylaw, against homeowners Mohammadreza Morshedian and Seyedeh Shahrbanoo Janani.
Rather than handing out the typical bylaw enforcement tickets, the district is prosecuting the charges under the rarely used provincial Offence Act, because of the "sheer magnitude" of charges and damage done, said Powers.
If found guilty on all charges, Morshedian and Janani could be fined $280,000 to $560,000 based on the $5,000 to $10,000 fine each bylaw violation carries.
"We take this very seriously," said Mayor, Michael Smith in a press release. "It is important that we enforce the bylaws that protect our natural environment. Anyone who operates outside these regulations risks repercussions. The owners were given ample opportunity to stop the illegal work and they chose not to. We are pursuing all appropriate charges."
Following the landslide, the owners were given two weeks to remediate the site, which they also neglected to do, forcing the district to hire a contractor to remove the excess fill and restabilize the slope. That comes with an approximately $80,000 bill, which the district will add to Morshedian and Janani's property taxes if they do not pay it up front, Powers said. The work to remediate the slope is nearly complete.
News of the charges is welcomed by the West Vancouver Streamkeepers, who hope throwing the book will deter other would-be bylaw bandits.
"I'm pleased that the district is stepping forward and challenging them," said John Barker, Streamkeepers co-ordinator. "These things happen from time to time and it's very discouraging that people don't follow the bylaws or provincial regs."
Barker and other Streamkeepers volunteers have been keeping close watch on Rodgers Creek, looking for signs of lasting damage to fish habitat. So far, it is hard to tell.
"That's the time that cutthroat trout spawn so the eggs would be in the gravel and they could get suffocated and we would have no knowledge of that. There's no way to know when you're getting that fine particulate drift down the stream,' he said. "We didn't detect any loss of fish but by the same token, we can never be 100 per cent sure.
Morshedian and Janani are due in North Vancouver provincial court on Sept. 10. They have not yet entered a plea.
