The recommendation to initiate legal proceedings against Parchel Holdings Ltd. in regards to the property located at 393 Point Ideal Drive, was given the green light by council at Tuesday’s town meeting last week.
The owner of the property has constructed a building on a dock in Cowichan Lake without a building permit which violates subsection 5(1) of the Town of Lake Cowichan’s Building Bylaw (758-2003).
This building also disregards the Town of Lake Cowichan’s Official Community Plan in that it was built in an area zoned for water recreation.
The property itself is zoned for single-family residential but the owners have failed to build a principal dwelling. On the property now are a trailer and some accessory buildings. This infringes upon Zoning Bylaw 479-1987.
Trailers are only permitted in land zoned C-3 and CD-1, which Point Ideal Drive is not, but the owner uses his trailer there illegally for dwelling.
The principal of ParshelHoldings Ltd. did offer to enter into an agreement with the Town to “fix the unresolved problems,” but was not clear on what the intent of the proposed agreement was going to be. Council feels this is not an acceptable option.
Staff has been authorized to start legal proceedings in the British Columbia Supreme Court in order to obtain an order against the address to comply with the Building, OCP and Zoning Bylaws in Lake Cowichan.
Although legal proceedings can be time consuming, the town does anticipate that the owner will comply with any judgement handed down by the courts, as there are many implications for non-compliance of such a judgement.