Needlessly noisy snowmobilers and ATVers may soon no longer be welcome at the Flin Flon Trailer Court.
City council has approved initial reading of a bylaw banning off-road vehicles from idling between, or within 10 feet of, mobile homes.
“If you get a skidoo running in between them, it’s like it’s echoing off of each place, and that’s somebody’s bedroom window right there,” said Coun. Skip Martin, who introduced the motion Tuesday. “And sometimes you have people who really don’t care if you’re sleeping or sick, and they just continue to do that.”
The bylaw would also prohibit off-road vehicles anywhere in the Trailer Court from idling for more than 15 minutes in a one-hour time frame.
Revving an off-road vehicle above idle for more than five minutes in a one-hour time period would be illegal as well.
All off-road vehicles entering the Trailer Court would also require a “functioning” muffler.
Asked why these rules shouldn’t apply to all of Flin Flon, Chief Administrative Officer Mark Kolt said that at this point, “the cutting edge” of complaints have come from the Trailer Court.
“And because the Trailer Court is municipally owned property, we have remedies that are specific (to there),” he said.
Kolt said a benefit of targeting the Trailer Court is that it can provide a test case for how the rules work and what the public response will be.
Council heard complaints about noisy off-road vehicles earlier this year when the issue was mentioned in a petition from Trailer Court residents.
Council okayed first reading of the bylaw Tuesday. To become law, it must pass a final reading at the next council meeting, on Jan. 7, 2014.
Anyone who would like to provide input on the bylaw is welcome to attend that meeting.
Flin Flon city council is targeting noisy snowmobilers and ATVers at the Trailer Court. Pictured, a snowmobiler travels down the shoulder of the Creighton Freeway.
FILE PHOTO
