Surrey bylaw enforcement shouldn't be a weapon for personal grievances.

Across Surrey, residents in good standing are being targeted by repeated bylaw complaints from a single source, often rooted in a personal grievance rather than a genuine community concern. Each complaint means inspections, stress and possible fines, and no protocol exists to stop one person from filing again and again. This isn't just inconvenient. It's fundamentally unfair, it disrupts lives, and it erodes trust in local governance.

Surrey already requires more than one neighbour's report before acting on a barking dog complaint. We're asking the City to apply the same safeguard to other similar complaints.

We're asking Mayor and Council, and the City's Bylaw Enforcement and Planning departments, to:

1/ Require two independently affected properties before formal enforcement begins. Complaints from at least two separate properties directly affected by the alleged issue, within a 30-day period, would trigger enforcement. Urgent safety hazards and matters requiring a building permit would still proceed on a single report, so real dangers are never delayed. The City should also review the results after a year against objective, measurable standards, applied equally to all residents.

2/ Measure the recreational unit setback from the sidewalk, not the property line. Today the 1-metre setback (Zoning Bylaw No. 12000, Part 14, Section H.2) is measured from the property line, which sits well back from the sidewalk. On many driveways, that leaves too little room for most recreational units to park legally. 

Many RVs, trailers and motorhomes parked in good faith are therefore in technical violation, even when they pose no safety risk and block neither pedestrians nor traffic. Because enforcement is complaint-driven, a unit can therefore sit untouched for years until one report, sometimes from someone who doesn't live nearby, leads to fines and forced removal. We propose a 1-metre clearance from the sidewalk's inner edge (or the pavement edge where there is no sidewalk), with the unit on a hard-surfaced driveway or pad, no sight-line obstruction, and no occupancy while parked.

This is not about weakening enforcement. It's about making it fairer and more resistant to abuse, and it needs no new staff. Fewer grievance-driven complaints free officers to focus on real community concerns.

Sign to support fair, consistent bylaw enforcement in Surrey.

Details and the full proposal: surreybylawreform.ca