HOUSING CRISIS: Vernon couple losing fight to live in RV on family acreage
A Vernon couple has found themselves in a housing crisis after a year and a half of battling the city and bylaw department to remain on their parents' acreage.
Lee and Sondra Watkins are currently living in an RV on a 4.3 acres of agricultural land reserve within the city limits. The city has been handing out expensive fines and wants them off the land.
“The city is supposed to help with this housing crisis,” Lee said. “They just ignored changing zoning bylaws for another two years and are making us feel like criminals.”
Born and raised in Vernon, the pair each run a small business and own horses and other large farm pets. In March 2022, the house they were renting in Coldstream was put up for sale. Higher costs of rent and the dream of saving for a down payment for a house prompted the couple to be more creative. They came up with what they thought was the perfect temporary living plan.
“We’re minimalists and always talked about living in a tiny home,” Lee said. “We wanted property for our farm animals for a couple of years while we saved money. We started looking at buying an RV.”
Sondra Watkins' parents have been living on the property for 26 years. At one time they’d owned horses and cows so the property has shelters, waterlines and fencing. It was agreed the Watkins would put a fifth wheel on the property and bring the animals in exchange for doing the necessary upkeep on the property.
The couple spent April working on the site and researching how to do the sewage and septic, and where to put the waterline.
“We went to companies for advice and got a CSA holding tank for our septic,” Lee said. “We scrambled and had the trailer delivered within a month.”
The couple financed the RV to keep monthly payments down and brought out their horses and rabbits. Lee said the same day the horses were delivered was the same day a neighbour wrote in a complaint.
“It was about two weeks after we moved in,” he said. “We’d didn’t think we would be an issue, they (parents) had lived there for years and knew all the neighbours.”
Lee said weeks after that, while the couple was having a wedding rehearsal on the property, a bylaw officer came by and “did a walk around of the property” which marked the beginning of 18 months of off and on communications with the City of Vernon and the bylaw department.
He said on August, 2022 he got a letter from the city’s bylaw department saying he had 30 days to move off the property. He responded by writing letters to council and bylaw asking for instruction on what needs to be changed to allow them to stay and was granted an extension to April 30, 2023.
“We were using the land agriculturally and following ALR’s rules, but the city has the final say when we’re within the City of Vernon limits,” Lee said. “We were hoping for a solution.”
At the end of April, bylaw came to the property to remind the couple to move off the land and a few days later returned with a city planner.
“We thought maybe they were doing research on how things should be done right and look at our set up and tank and hookups, see how well the property is kept,” Lee said. “They looked around and took photos and were interested in how things were powered. They left and we thought maybe a resolution was possible again.”
On May 23, the Watkins received a letter from the city and bylaw stating they had to be off the property by June 23.
They found a property in Armstrong where a woman was going to build RV sites on her 17 acres of ALR land. After meeting the owner it was decided the Watkins would move there on July 1 and in mid June they paid their deposit. But the move-in date was pushed back several times as far as September when the work necessary to get the property up to standards was taking longer than predicted.
Lee said he sent an email to city councillors and the mayor.
“I wrote a very extensive email after talking to many professionals stating there are many case-by-case scenarios, you have options,” he said. “It was our final plea, we just wanted some cooperation. We got zero response.”
In June, Lee got a $250 fine for unlawful land use, and another one in July while the property owners in Armstrong kept informing him of further delays.
“I would let bylaw know we’re still here but we’re leaving and provided a letter from the property owner in Armstrong saying they’re working on building legal sites and our deposit was paid.”
Lee got a third fine in September and has since received a fourth.
Lee booked dates with a towing company and a date for the septic tank to be pumped and moved to the new location for the last week of September. But, a week before the move, he hit another obstacle.
“The owner in Armstrong had just been visited by Interior Health and learned her septic tank isn’t up to par for the number of sites and has to be dug up. The new location might not be ready until next spring.”
Lee said Agricultural Land Commission and Technical Safety officers have been to the property in recent weeks and found the living situation compliant with the rules.
“I showed the technical safety electrical officer how it had been professionally done,” he said. “He said fix this, change that and get a permit, I have no problem, you guys had most of this right.”
Lee posted his situation in his neighbourhood’s social media group and was so inspired by the amount of support he received he started a petition that has over 2000 signatures, with plans to take it to city council.
“The City of Vernon has been working with the property owner to find a resolution to the unlawful occupation of a recreational vehicle located on the property since May 2022,” reads an email to iNFOnews from communications officer with the City of Vernon, Josh Winquist. “Since that time, there have been several conversations with the property owner and occupants of the RV around education and voluntary compliance.”
The statement said local government can regulate residential use through the City’s Zoning Bylaw that doesn’t consider RVs a dwelling unit and therefore cannot be used as permanent year-round accommodation. The way recreational vehicles are manufactured does not comply with B.C. Building Code regulations and standards and living in one year-round is “not an allowable property use within the Zoning Bylaw Agriculture (A1) zone."
A variance to these bylaws is “contrary to the Local Government Act, which does not permit variances to use or density.”
“While this continues to be an active ongoing investigation, it should be noted that considerable time—more than a year—has been given for the property owners and RV occupants to consider options and to find a solution that complies with the City Zoning Bylaw,” the City said.
The issue of people using RVs as permanent dwellings has come up numerous time in the Okanagan and the Thompson Nicola Regional District along with the call from some residents for changes to the bylaws.
The City of Vernon has been dealing with the similar issue of people permanently parking RVs on city streets for the past five years.
READ MORE: Housing crisis prompts Kelowna to consider tightening restrictions on short-term rentals
Lee said he wants the City to start finding solutions to the housing crisis instead of “wasting taxpayers' money” when there are “bigger issues to deal with.”
“We thought they’d allow people to get creative to survive,” he said. “Someone did it and did it right and you’re still punishing them.”
READ MORE: iN VIDEO: Fire at Kelowna homeless camp destroys tent but doesn’t spread
Homelessness is on the rise in the province with the latest Point in Time count of people living without homes showing the numbers have jumped significantly in the past two to three years.
“The results of these counts reinforce our belief that more needs to be done to help the most vulnerable members of our communities,” Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon said in a media release issued Oct. 5. “Because of global inflation, cities across North America are seeing an increase in vulnerable populations.”
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