CHILLIWACK BYLAW GETS TOUGH WITH GROW OPS

Onus Put on Landlords to Keep Tabs on Their Buildings

VANCOUVER -- Chilliwack will respond to its reputation as "Colombia North" today with what officials say is the toughest anti-marijuana-growing bylaw in British Columbia.

Like other civic bylaws, it will put the onus on landlords to keep tabs on their premises, but Coun.  Sharon Gaetz says the city's initiative goes further.

There is a $10,000 fine, which can be re-applied each day the offence continues.

Water can be shut off.  The city can fix up damaged homes and bill the owner.  Fire inspectors may enter if they believe the premises are unsafe.

There is a $200 fee for property inspection, $150 for occupancy inspection and $2,500 to certify the building is safe.

The bylaw is up for first, second and third readings at a meeting of council today.  "Organized crime is running these operations.  We don't want them here," says Gaetz.

Mayor Clint Hames says Chilliwack is favoured because "we have single family homes on large lots, where you're away from your neighbour."

Columbia Valley lies to the south, where drug-runners jump across the border to Washington state, selling their half-kilos of pot for $5,000 Cdn, more than three times the price here.

Hames says, half-jokingly, that his biggest fear is $10,000 fines being "paid in cash."

"When you're growing thousands of plants, that's chump change," he says.  Police estimate each house can bring in $130,000 worth of pot a year.

With a population of 67,000 in the Fraser Valley about an hour east of Vancouver, Chilliwack is a city of strip malls, 70-odd churches and 1,000 grow ops.  RCMP Cpl.  Sean Sullivan took down one pot growing operation last week.  It was concealed behind blanket-covered windows in the basement of a commercial space.

Landlords are not overjoyed with the bylaws cropping up around B.C., but Lynda Pasacreta says it is necessary to protect communities.

"Police show us over and over it happens to the same landlords," says Pasacreta, of the B.C.  Apartment Owners and Managers Association.  "A lot of landlords are not doing as much as they can."

She says credit, identification, references and sometimes criminal records need to be checked.

Landlords in Chilliwack will not be held responsible if they can demonstrate that they have done everything possible to monitor the situation.

Changes to the Residential Tenancy Act last January allow landlords to inspect every month providing that proper notice is given.

Other cities with anti-grow-op bylaws include Surrey, Vancouver, North Van District, West Van, Burnaby and Coquitlam.  Richmond is bringing one forward.