The entrance to the Alberni Valley has drawn complaints from residents for many years: too many billboards, too ugly, sprawling businesses not hidden behind trees or attractive fences. A group of students from Anne Ostwald’s Grade 11 Civic Studies class is hoping to change that with a bylaw they have drafted to beautify the area.
The bylaw covers everything from litter, uncontrolled brush and lumber or scrap metal piled up haphazardly to the types of businesses that would be affected.
“They’re so excited about this,” said Ostwald.
The Civics Studies class is fairly new to B.C. Ostwald said she likes to actually work in the community when completing the project phase of the curriculum.
The regional district already has an unsightly premises bylaw, but planning and development manager Mike Irg said the students’ bylaw could be a useful tool.
Irg plans to present the students’ project to the regional district board as soon as the students finalize the bylaw—likely for the February committee of the whole meeting.
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