Under the Local Government Act, local governments
may regulate activities and provide services by adopting bylaws and
resolutions. Bylaws are the local laws
that prescribe how certain activities, such as land use and development, must
take place. They are the primary means
by which local governments shape how a community grows, and how the environment
is protected.
Some bylaws, such as official community plans, zoning, and capital expenditure
bylaws guide the overall development of a community. Issue-specific bylaws can set restrictions on certain aspects of
development. This page discusses common
types of issue-specific bylaws that can help to protect watercourses, including
by-laws for:
·
Streamside
Protection
·
Watercourse
Protection
·
Tree
Protection
·
Prohibition
of Nuisance
·
Other
types of By-laws
Note: Local governments
are not required to adopt most bylaws.
Councils adopt bylaws in response to issues arising in the
community. In each case you will need
to contact your municipality or regional district to find out what by-laws are
in place in your community and to get copies of them. Environmental bylaws may be contained in one easy to navigate
“comprehensive environmental protection bylaw” or may need to be sought out by
asking careful questions.
Under the province’s Streamside Protection Regulation (passed under the Fish Protection Act), local governments are required
to establish streamside protection and enhancement areas adjacent to streams by
2006. While Local Governments are not
yet required to have such streamside protection by-laws in place yet, many do. Streamside protection by-laws are meant to
protect natural features, functions and conditions that support fish life
processes.
Local
governments can fulfill the requirements of the Streamside Protection
Regulation in a number of ways, including enacting a watercourse protection
bylaw, creating development permit areas and requirements in the OCP, and changing zoning
conditions.
A council
may prohibit a person from polluting, obstructing or impeding the flow of a
stream, creek, waterway, watercourse, waterworks, ditch, drain or sewer,
whether or not it is located on private property (under section
725.1 of the Act).
Watercourse protection bylaws may also incorporate other local
governments powers relating to the health of streams, such as limits on
impervious surfaces, water quality requirements, an open streams policy, and
managing stormwater.
Local governments have broad authority to regulate and prohibit the
cutting of trees. This includes
requiring that trees be replaced, and can apply to different areas of the
municipality and types of trees. The municipality
can designate significant trees, and require that an owner obtain a permit
before cutting trees. A tree protection
bylaw cannot prevent all uses permitted under the zoning bylaw, and cannot
prevent the development to the density permitted under a zoning
bylaw, unless compensation is paid.
Regional districts have more limited tree protection powers. They may
only use tree cutting permit powers in areas that a regional board considers
subject to floods, erosion, landslide or avalanche.
Local governments may prevent
and prohibit “nuisances” on private property.
The regulation of nuisance-like activities may include:
- prohibiting the accumulation of garbage and require
property owners to remove garbage;
- requiring property owners to eliminate or reduce the
fouling or contaminating of the atmosphere through the emission of smoke,
dust, gas and other airborne pollution;
- requiring manufacturers and processors to dispose of
the waste in the manner directed by the bylaw; and
- prohibiting the carrying on of a noxious or offensive
trade, business or manufacture.
Other types of by-laws that a
local government might pass that could be relavent to watershed management
include:
·
Soil Deposit and Fill By-laws – Local
governments may regulate or prohibit the removal and deposit of soil or other
material on any land in the municipality or regional district. Where a bylaw prohibits the removal of soil,
it must be approved by the Ministers of Community, Aboriginal and Women’s
Services and Energy and Mines.
·
Landscaping and Screening -- Under section 909 of the Local
Government Act, local governments may,
by bylaw, require vegetation to be retained for the preservation, protection,
restoration and enhancement of the natural environment. These requirements may
be contained in a zoning bylaw or in a separate
landscaping and screening bylaw. This provision also allows local governments
to require vegetation to be planted in streamside areas.
·
Drainage: Runoff Control and Impervious Surfaces – A local government may pass a bylaw
detailing how a landowner who builds a structure must manage the disposal of
surface runoff and storm water. The
by-law can specify that there shall be no net increase in runoff from the site or
can require the retention of storm water onsite. A local government may also establish the maximum percentage of
the area of land that can be covered by impermeable material, to ensure that
water is infiltrated back into the soil.
·
Floodplains – A local government may adopt a bylaw designating land that is subject to
flooding as a flood plain area. Once
designated, the local government may specify setbacks from watercourses and
development levels for the flood plain.
These bylaws must be approved by the Minister.
Landowners
may apply to vary the requirements of land use bylaws that would otherwise
apply to them by asking local government for a development variance
permit. However, development variance
permits may not vary the use and density of the land or floodplain
specification. No formal public hearing
requirements exist for granting these variance permits. If a local government receives and approves
many development variance permit applications, the goals of an official
community plan and other bylaws may be undermined.
Note: The Community Charter (introduced in the
Legislature in March 2003, but not yet passed as of April 2, 2003) may soon
limit the power of local governments to enact bylaws for the protection of the
environment.
Related
Guide Pages:
·
Streamside Protection Regulations
·
official community plans
·
Zoning By-laws
·
Capital Expenditures
·
Stormwater management
For more information on the Local Government
Act and Bylaws:
·
Linda Nowlan, Chris
Rolfe and Kathy Grant, The
Smart Growth Guide to Local Government Law and Advocacy (Vancouver: West
Coast Environmental Law, 2001).
·
Websites of
Local Governments – Increasingly local governments have some or all of
their bylaws available on-line.
·
Access
Near Aquatic Areas: A Guide for Sensitive Planning, Design and Management
·
District of North Vancouver, Environmental
Protection and Preservation Bylaw.
·
Living By Water
Project
·
Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection, Stewardship
Bylaws: A Guide for Local Government (1997).
·
Stream
Stewardship: A Guide for Planners and Developers. DFO and WLAP. 1994.
·
James Taylor Chair in Landscapes and Livable
Environments, UBC, Site
Design Manual
