Residents of a troubled reserve in Alberta voted Wednesday to give the band the power to legally evict gang members from the community.

The Residency Bylaw, which still needs to be approved by the Department of Indian Affairs before coming into effect, will allow any 25 residents to apply to have someone removed.

The residents of the community passed the bylaw with a vote of 479 to 370 Wednesday evening.

"The Chief and Council of the Samson Cree Nation are deeply concerned by recent incidents of violence and undesirable activity on the Samson reserve, and the dangers that such circumstances present to life and safety of the persons present on the Samson reserve," states a draft of the bylaw.

The reserve is located in Hobbema, south of Edmonton.

The band agreed to take the issue to a vote after the July death of the chief's five-year-old grandson in a drive-by shooting, as well as ongoing gang violence.

There are believed to be about 12 gangs in the four First Nations communities in the Hobbema area.

"It is considered necessary for the health and welfare of the Samson Cree Nation to regulate the residence of its citizens and other persons on the reserve," states the bylaw, which also includes a provision requiring prospective new residents to apply to a residency tribunal before moving in.

Evictions wouldn't necessarily be permanent, however. The bylaw states that anyone whose residency is revoked could still obtain permission to visit for special occasions.

Evicted residents could also apply to have their residency restored if they could show a change in the circumstances that led to their removal.

Under the bylaw, residents who are not members of the Samson Cree Nation could be evicted by the reserve's residency tribunal, once a petition of 25 people or more has been submitted and just cause has been shown.

If the person is a member of the Samson Cree Nation, the tribunal would have to recommend their removal, at which time the chief and council would have to vote with a two-thirds majority in favour of the eviction.

"Whether the person is a member or a non-member, he or she could only be removed if the person's presence on the reserve 'would present a danger to the health or safety of the community,'" states the draft document.

If a person is evicted, that information would be passed on to the RCMP.

Children under the age of 12 cannot be evicted under the terms of the bylaw.

According to community member and retired teacher Joyce Crier-Tootoosis, the reserve would be better off today if leaders had taken a harder line in years previous.

"It should have been tough love from the beginning. Maybe it wouldn't have escalated this far," she told CTV Edmonton's Sean Amato.

But in such a small community, she conceded that following through with discipline on troublemakers will be tough.

"No matter how painful it is, you have to take them and use them as an example."

Band councillor Kirk Buffalo is a supporter of the plan, and he said that violence and drugs are a growing problem from criminals who should be held accountable.

But others in the community feel that eviction isn't getting at the root issues and is simply pushing the problems away.

"You're basically throwing your own people off their land, and we're supposed to be working together, not against each other," said mother Juanita Littlechild-Grecul.

Locals curious about such a strategy, however, need only to look at nearby Enoch Cree Nation, were leaders have already implemented an eviction bylaw.

Rod Meek, an Enoch resident, said the community still endeavors to help gang members, since simply throwing them out of the community could leave them on skid row in Edmonton.

Meanwhile, Buffalo said that his community is prepared to work with gang members to help them go straight -- but only if they take the initiative.