POCO PREPARES TO SEND MESSAGE TO GROW OPS - STAY AWAY

The City of Port Coquitlam wants to send a clear message to marijuana
grow operators: "We don't want you in our community."

The city is planning to draft a new grow operations bylaw to include
more stringent measures to deal with the illegal operations that are
springing up in the city.

"It's a fairly significant addition to the bylaw," said Nancy
Gomerich, the city's director of corporate services, at a protective
services committee meeting Thursday morning.

Coun. Greg Moore, who chairs the committee, called it one of the most
important bylaws council will see this year.

In November, the finance and intergovernmental committee passed a
resolution to revise the bylaw to include ways to recover costs,
property inspection requirements, a broader definition of the term
"grow op" and more delegation of authority for city staff and the
RCMP, plus revisions to the ticket information utilization bylaw to
include new fees.

PoCo already has an illegal drug operations remediation bylaw, but
Gomerich said there are no clean, tight procedures - the new bylaw
will change this.

Similar bylaws already exist in communities such as Abbotsford,
Chilliwack, Maple Ridge and Coquitlam, but Moore ventured to say that
PoCo's could be the most advanced yet.

The core regulations of the new bylaw state that nobody can bypass
hydro, water or natural gas meters to power a grow op, and if the
utilities are disconnected or need repairs, the owner must pay to have
them reconnected.

The owner must also clean up the property to a certain standard before
it can be lived in again.

Why should landlords come forward when they know about a grow op on
their property?

Even though the owner will be required to make the property livable,
at their own expense, the city may waive service fees for owners who
inspect their property every three months, as required by the bylaw,
and report a grow op within 48 hours of finding one.

"It's the innocent bystander I want to make damn sure we're not
unloading on," said Coun. Mike Forrest.

Although it doesn't sound like much, the service fees add
up.

For example, every home inspection costs $500. Individual fire
services can cost between $180 per hour (for a duty chief and vehicle)
and $1,315 per hour (for an aerial device).

Police time, from dismantling to drug disposal, to equipment disposal,
will all be billable. The same goes for building inspectors ($54 per
hour and $430 per call out), bylaw officers ($43 per hour and $345 per
call out), and any other service fees incurred. An additional
administration and overhead fee of 15 per cent can also be charged.
However, a rough estimate for a typical grow operation is $1,000 in
inspection fees, $2,000 in policing costs and $1,000 in other service
fees.

"It's quite comprehensive in what can be charged," Gomerich
said.

All of the fees will be charged in the interest of cost recovery,
Gomerich said. If fees are not paid, they will be applied to property
taxes. If they are still not paid, the city could ultimately sell the
property to recover the costs.