Civic Address Enforcement

The new street name and address system has now been in place over 18 months.

The original letters assigning new civic addresses were mailed out to all owners of property within the Town of Oliver on October 4, 2011. In that letter, property owners were asked to have new house numbers in place not later than December 31, 2011.

While the majority of property owners have their address numbers in place, there remain many who do not. Besides the routine inconvenience for deliveries and utility companies created by unaddressed properties, this is cause for serious concern because:

Lifesaving emergency assistance to occupants of a property may be delayed if house numbers are not clearly visible. Emergencies on a public street or sidewalk are often reported by passersby using a cell phone. Such callers rely on correctly posted addresses on adjacent properties to guide emergency crews. Owners neglecting to correctly post their address could create confusion and delay for emergency crews, possibly leading to medical complications and loss of life.

For the above reasons, Civic Addressing Bylaw 1320 requires addresses to be posted on all properties. Specifically, section 5 of Bylaw 1320 requires the owner of any building, structure or occupied property to post their address as follows:

(1) Numbers must be securely affixed to the exterior of the building they identify, to a fence or retaining wall or to a sign located on the property to which the numbers have been assigned; (2) Only the current numbers assigned by this bylaw may be posted and all other numbers must be removed; (3) Numbers must be not less than 100mm high; (4) Numbers must provide bold contrast from the background upon which they are mounted; and (5) Numbers must be clearly visible and legible to a licensed driver when viewed from the highway passing in front of the building, structure or property.”

Council has directed that active enforcement of Bylaw 1320 be commenced against owners who have not yet properly installed their correct house numbers. The ticket fine for non-compliance is $50 per offence and each day’s continuance constitutes a new offence and is subject to additional tickets.

To avoid enforcement action, owners of occupied land should make sure their correct address numbers are installed as set out in the bylaw. Just for clarity, the temporary paper numbers posted in many windows were a transitional solution only and do not satisfy the bylaw requirements.

Enforcement action is planned to commence on May 1, 2013, so owners have a final two weeks to make sure their addresses are correctly posted.

** late note: As per the Land Title Act the definition of “Highway” includes a public street, path, walkway, trail, lane, bridge, road, thoroughfare and any other public way.