Some rural residential properties will stay exempt from paying for pool

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. – The Peace River Regional District approved a modernized version of the bylaw that exempts residential properties outside of driving distance to the North Peace Leisure Pool from the facility’s service area.

The bylaw, deferred from the PRRD meeting on July 14th after more information was requested from directors, defines which properties are part of the North Peace Leisure Pool’s service area and, by extension, which properties pay taxes towards it. 

Changes made in the current bylaw from the previous version passed in 2017 include exemptions made for 57 new residential properties and 142 residential properties previously exempted.

It also updates the bylaw to provincial standards and clearly defines zones one and two of Electoral Area B — as well as the reason they are separately defined in the bylaw.

“In short, the NP Pool Service Area is unique,” Tyra Henderson, corporate officer for the PRRD, wrote in a memo to the board. “While it may have been very clear and obvious to the staff and elected officials who were involved in the development of the bylaw in 1995, staff since that time have struggled to comprehend the service area structure.”

Lori Ackerman, member of the board and mayor of Fort St. John, motioned to make sure information about the service area and update to the bylaw was passed on to the NPLP replacement steering committee.

To that end, staff took extra care in making a comprehensive explanatory section in the bylaw with the average resident in mind. 

Director of Electoral Area B, Karen Goodings, requested the clarification and thanked staff for their work on the bylaw.