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Unsightly Premises Bylaw amended
The City of Cranbrook has updated its Unsightly Premises Bylaw and is introducing a Public Places Bylaw.
On June 23, City of Cranbrook council adopted the Unsightly Premises Bylaw No. 4206, 2025 and introduced the new Public Places Bylaw No. 4207, 2025.
As a result of these bylaws, the Municipal Ticketing Information System (MTIS) Amendment Bylaw requires amendment to provide the city with the ability to enforce the bylaws.
At the Regular Council meeting on July 14, the draft Municipal Ticketing Information System Amendment Bylaw received three readings and was adopted July 28.
Council also approved the Bylaw Notice Enforcement (BNE) Amendment Bylaw, which authorizes penalties issued through the proposed Unsightly Premises and Public Places Bylaws.
In an Engineering and Development Services department report to council, Paul Heywood provided recaps on the bylaws.
Public Places Bylaw – recap
“At present, the Cranbrook municipality is unable to take corrective action to remedy minor nuisances that occur within the city, at public facilities, and at our parks. The city also has no clear means of protecting its public property from those wanting to create willful damage.
“The Public Places Bylaw has two target audiences – the citizen that is affected by a nuisance, and the person who creates the nuisance. Our intent is for Cranbrook residents to enjoy the use of public facilities, parks, and public places without hindrance and the provocations of others. These actions, enforcements, and penalties are outlined in this bylaw and differ from the Criminal Code and provincial statutes.”
Unsightly Premises Bylaw – recap
“Building and Bylaw Services has been working with the city’s legal counsel to update City Bylaws to reflect current language and to clarify ambiguous language to better enable staff to interpret and enforce the city’s regulatory bylaws. The current Unsightly Premises Bylaw No. 3390, 2000 was reviewed and rewritten to reflect current standards and to update language regarding “an offence.”
“In the current bylaw the language is unclear as it is based on the premise that “an offence ” is occurring prior to the city contracting crews or authorizing city staff to clean up an unsightly property. It is not clear if this offence would need to be proven in court. The revised bylaw is now based on an “order for property owners to comply” in remedying their unsightly property.”
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