Couple fined $100K for causing 2013 landslide into creek
Mohammadreza Morshedian and Seyedeh Janani continued work on their home after they were told to stop
A West Vancouver couple has been fined $100,000 by a provincial court judge for causing a landslide into an environmentally-sensitive creek.
"It's a significant fine but it's probably appropriate for the nature of this transgression of our bylaws," said West Vancouver spokesman Jeff McDonald.
The slide occurred in 2013 when Mohammadreza Morshedian and his wife Seyedeh Shahrbanoo Janani were working on their home in the British Properties and dumping fill in their backyard without a permit.
"The fill was unstable and there was a lot of it on a steep slope and some of the fill fell into the creek," McDonald said.
Most bylaw infractions occur when people are unaware of them, he said, but in this case the dumping continued after bylaw officers visited the couple and issued a stop work order.
"What these homeowners did was a pretty flagrant violation of bylaws," said McDonald.
He said it's rare for the district to take a bylaw infraction to this level — most are resolved through mediation.
"We're pleased with it because it sends a really strong message that people need to respect bylaws and need to respect stop work orders when they're issued."
With files from Deborah Goble