A man ordered to remove more than 100 old vehicles from his rural land told The Citizen he feels singled out, noting many other property owners in and around Prince George have multiple unroadworthy cars on their land — often just as visible as his.
“I’m just getting singled out for some reason. I think it’s totally unfair," said Thomas Standers. "I spent $8,000 on a lawyer to try to fight this. Of course, I got a judge from Victoria who didn’t pity me at all, and he slammed me to the wall. So now they’re giving me 90 days to clean all this up or they’re going to come and do it for me.”
The Citizen caught up with Standers on his property to discuss the ruling.
“There was a complaint made, apparently, four years ago,” Standers said. “They told me, ‘You’ve got to clean up and make it look presentable.’ I thought I did, because you can't see anything from the road. They say I'm unsightly, but you can go out on the road there and you can't even notice anything I’ve got here, right? You’ve got to really look down the driveway to see the cars.
"I don’t think that’s fair, because I’m surrounded by bush. Now they're saying I’ve got to be down to 10 vehicles, and only two can’t run. I’ve got a five-acre lot. They're deeming this land as agriculture only… I guess I picked the wrong place. I don't know. I'm not being treated fairly here at all.”
The regional district alleged the land was not in compliance with its unsightly premises bylaw, which states that a property is in violation if it has more than two derelict vehicles on site that are not kept within an enclosed building or used for business purposes.
The judge also found that Standers’ zoning bylaw does not permit rural or residential land to be used as a vehicle storage yard or as a facility for unroadworthy vehicles.
Standers was given 90 days to remove the vehicles. The judge ruled he may keep no more than 10 vehicles on the property, and only two of them may be non-operational.
The property was previously owned by Standers’s father, who sold it to him. Both father and son have been collecting and fixing cars on the land as a hobby since the 1980s.
Standers said he attempted to reach a compromise with the courts but was unsuccessful.
“I was willing to actually work with them,” he said. “I’ll drop down to 50 cars or I’ll build a big fence — whatever you want, right? But I couldn’t reason with them at all.”
Although Standers is working toward complying with the court and district orders, he said seasonal load restrictions are making it difficult. Due to the 50 per cent legal axle loading currently in place, scrap dealers and tow trucks are unable to remove vehicles from his property until restrictions are lifted.
Despite the challenge, Standers is making progress. He is actively seeking alternate places to store his vehicles and has begun selling some for scrap.
“I’m going to get rid of some — there’s some that I don’t need to keep anymore, and I’ll get scrap metal price for them,” he said. “But there are ones I want to keep. I don’t want to throw away all these old trucks, because you can’t go to the auto wreckers and find parts for them anymore. They’re not there anymore. I spent money collecting them — $500 for that one, $400 for that one, on and on — and now I’m supposed to just crush them?”
Given the loading restrictions and logistical challenges involved in moving more than 100 vehicles, the court has granted Standers additional time to comply with the order, provided he continues to show consistent progress.
Standers isn’t the only one frustrated with the court’s decision. Friends and local residents have launched a petition asking the court to reconsider. The petition has garnered more than 500 signatures, something Standers said he didn’t expect.
“I was pretty surprised at that many people signing,” he said. “There were people I didn’t even know who signed it. I also got a lot of publicity from the racetrack because I used to race a car. I was out there for like 20-something years racing.”
A lifelong motorsport enthusiast, Standers is still involved in local racing and helps young drivers source parts.
“I started racing at PGARA when I was 15 years old,” he said. “I raced a lot of hit-to-pass and won a few of them. I was a points champion in 2007 in street stocks and runner-up quite a few times. I’ve got a bunch of these Cavaliers and stuff for mini-stock racing, and a couple of my friends — one in particular, Aaron Tranholm, he’s got three daughters and they’re all driving mini-stock. I supplied the cars and the parts. They come here to build them and everything.
"But I’m deemed a criminal for that. I’m just trying to give back. Those kids could be downtown doing drugs and getting in trouble, but instead they’re out there having fun on the track, and we’re supporting it.”
Standers estimates it will take until the end of summer to remove all the vehicles from his property.
