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Dear Mayor Basran et al,
While I was out with clients this afternoon, the bylaw officer came by and seized one of two Fair Realty sandwich boards but left the other. The one he took was between a concrete flower bed and a lamp post, that is, not obstructing any pedestrian traffic or vehicle driver sight lines. The one he left is on the sidewalk where pedestrians move about. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to the policy or the enforcement of this bylaw.
The officer attempted to seize Pulp Fiction’s signs and got into a confrontation with the owner, who prevented him from taking his signs.
I just did a driving tour of Lawrence, Pandosy, Ellis and Sunset Drive and there are sandwich boards everywhere on the sidewalk on all four streets. Premier Properties on Sunset and Re/Max on Ellis both have their signs on the sidewalk. Vantage West on Ellis did not have their sandwich board out when I drove by just now.
Can anyone tell us, does the bylaw officer actually have the authority to seize personal property? It would appear less draconian if we were issued a citation and could plead our case at court. It would be understandable if pedestrian access was being blocked and the owner refused to move the obstruction to a different location after being asked to, but that is not the case here at all.
As I said before, it hardly seems fair that Premier Properties, Vantage West and Re/Max (and of course Sage Executive Realty with the special rules on Bernard) are allowed to advertise their realty businesses in this way but Fair Realty Kelowna is not. We are not obstructing any pedestrians – visually impaired or otherwise. I am sure the other realty companies aren’t obstructing any pedestrians either.
We have been working hard to help beautify this little corner of downtown Kelowna and feel we’ve done a very good job of doing so thus far. We don’t think the bylaw should be arbitrarily applied because it creates an unfair advantage to competing businesses who aren’t being targeted or complained about by anonymous people.
Sincerely,
Luke J. Menkes
Fair Realty Kelowna
