If not for a sharp-eyed citizen, a bylaw change banning horses on Township of Langley roads and other public spaces may have made it through the approval stages at city hall.
Thankfully, says Gloria Stelting, council pulled back on the reins on such a move at their March 24 meeting.
The agenda item caught Stelting’s interest, when she started reviewing it before that Monday meeting.
The North Otter resident noted the concerning amendment to bylaw number 6059, particularly part 5.1, which would prohibit horses, other than those used by police, in public spaces.
“I actually read the agendas and that’s the only way you’re going to see these things,” she said. The changes to the bylaw weren’t highlighted in the agenda’s text.
When Stelting turned up at the March meeting, along with about 15 other equine supporters, she said Councillors Barb Martens and Margaret Kunst both asked why staff hadn’t highlighted the changes.
At the meeting, Mayor Eric Woodward noted that many people in the community had reached out the weekend prior about the amendment involving horses.
“I think we’re all aware that there was quite a bit of communication over the weekend and concern regarding a paragraph that was proposed to be added to the public spaces regulation bylaw specific to additional regulation for horses and not other animals,” he said during the meeting.
He made a motion, which was seconded by Councillor Tim Baillie, to have the proposed change quashed.
But those in the equestrian community are concerned about how the change made it into the proposed bylaw change in the first place.
Had Stelting not caught it and reached out to a number of others in the community, it may have made it through readings.
She contacted Annabel Young, a Salmon River area resident who posted about it on Facebook.
“They were going to do second and third readings and then vote,” Young noted. “It would have gone through and no one would have been aware.”
She’s grateful for the power of social media, but is concerned about the process with the amendment making it this far without any public consultation.
“The biggest thing that concerns me is the whole process of what’s going on,” she said.
“It [the agenda] was something like 400 pages and it was slapped on the councillor’s desks on something like Thursday," Young said, noting that left just Friday and the weekend to read the lengthy document ahead of the vote.
“How did it get to the councillors without going through any input? With no thoughts? It’s the most ill-conceived, badly written massive amendment and yet it was just going to be pushed through,” Young added. “It’s very draconian.”
Stelting also questioned where the proposal came from and why?
“Most people take responsibility for drafting it,” she said of bylaw amendments. But not this time. There was no mention of who drafted it or from what department it originated.
Nor was there any notation of checks and balances with other departments, she added.
Woodward says there were a number of minor amendments to the public spaces bylaw.
“What they labelled as housekeeping,” he said. “This paragraph regarding horses specifically was inserted into the bylaw amendment without explanation to council.”
He feels it originated from odd complaints about horse feces on public roads. But banning horses from public roads contravenes the BC Motor Vehicles Act.
As Young explained, even walking her granddaughter and her pony down the street would have been illegal had the amendment gone through.
“We did notice that that paragraph did not have a rationale provided with the report,” Woodward noted. “The bylaw has been amended back to the status quo now.”
