Yabba-dabba don’t.
The District of West Vancouver is telling a property owner to roll back several stones on their boulevard that are too close to the roadway, according to district bylaw.
At a July 21 meeting, council denied a boulevard encroachment permit for rocks on the public land abutting 2035 Russet Way, and said the rocks must be moved at least two metres away from the road’s edge.
According to a staff report, the district issued a building permit to build a new driveway, stairs and retaining walls on the property in April 2024.
As part of a routine final inspection, staff visited the property in October 2024. During the review, staff said they saw rocks up to 0.6 metres (two feet) in size around 0.8 metres from the roadway. The stones are placed on the municipal boulevard along Russet Way and Russel Place.
Staff then told the homeowner that the rocks didn’t conform to the bylaw and had to be moved for the work to pass final inspection.
The owner told staff the rocks were placed to prevent cars from parking on the grass, and requested a variance to keep the stones. Staff told the owner they could apply for an encroachment permit, and an application was made in March 2025.
But staff said the application didn’t meet the criteria for a permit because they were too close to the roadway and could be a hazard to vehicles, and potentially block emergency vehicles from accessing the boulevard.
The owners then chose to appeal staff’s decision by addressing council directly.
'These are massive boulders'
Making his case at the recent council meeting, homeowner Greg Coombs said he put the rocks in place to protect the boulevard grass he’d installed, and to prevent damage to the asphalt on the roadway.
“We have a serious problem in the winter. We’re on a very steep hill, so always service vehicles or everything else, they try to touch the side of the roadway,” he said. “That causes the ruts to the boulevard grass that causes erosion. And over time, you can see in this photo how much slumping of asphalt has actually occurred.”
Coombs argued that putting stones along the boulevard is common in West Vancouver.
Coun. Christine Cassidy said she visited the property, and said the rocks are an “eyesore.”
“And what it looked to me, a member of the public, is essentially that you did not want anybody to park in front of your house,” she said. “So as a consequence, what you did is you basically encapsulated district land so nobody could park in front of your house.”
In comparison, Cassidy said the neighbour across the street had “some semblance of rock” on their boulevard.
“These are massive boulders,” she said.
Coun. Nora Gambioli said she needed to support staff doing comprehensive inspections because people do "crazy things" that aren’t related to building a house.
“I think it is the issue of privatizing public land,” she said. “If it’s going to be blocking emergency vehicles and damaging cars, then the next thing we know is that we’re going to start getting sued for people’s cars being damaged because it’s on the public boulevard.”
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