Crackdown coming on unsightly premises in P.E.I. Resort Municipality

The resort municipality that represents several communities in the Cavendish area is ready to unveil its new dangerous and unsightly property bylaw something it has been working on for months.

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The resort municipality of Stanley Bridge, Hope River, Bayview, Cavendish and North Rustico draws hundreds of thousands of tourists every year and the municipality wants property to look attractive and be safe.

It's not a particularly pressing issue at this exact moment but that makes it the right time to put a bylaw in place and help prevent it in the future. Matthew Jelley, Resort Municipality chair

"It's been a concern of residents, business owners and the council itself," said Matthew Jelley, chair of the Resort Municipality.

"It's been a priority of ours to make sure we have a bylaw," Jelley said, adding unsightly premises have not been a major problem in the area.

There had been a couple of properties that had been vacant for a number of years, he said, but in the last four or five years many of them wereredeveloped.

'Right time'

"It's not a particularly pressing issue at this exact moment but that makes it the right time to put a bylaw in place and help prevent it in the future."

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The primary focus is that structures are sound, with windows and roof intact, and either occupied or secured Jelley said. Derelict vehicles must be stored properly and grass must be cut along road frontage. The bylaw will empower the municipality to issue summary offence tickets or enter the property and clean it up, billing the owner for work done.

Residents and property owners will get their first look at the new bylaw at a public meeting Wed. Sept. 21 at 7:30 p.m. Planning board and council will take feedback from that session into account, and Jelley said the municipality hopes to have the bylaw in place by next summer.

There isa significant number of out-of-province property owners in the municipality, Jelley said.

The municipality has a fulltime CAO and will hirebylaw enforcement officersif necessary, Jelley added.

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