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Powell River council fast-tracks vacant building bylaw

City enforcement of property maintenance lacks teeth, say councillors
bylaw
TOUGHER BYLAW: City of Powell River council is confident a new bylaw will improve how it deals with vacant and abandoned buildings in the city, such as a recently torn down house on Joyce Avenue. Peak archive photo

City of Powell River officials could soon have the power to fine owners of vacant lots or abandoned buildings deemed by the municipality to be unsightly or a public safety risk.

City council directed staff at its August 15 committee of the whole meeting to raise the priority of developing a vacant and abandoned property bylaw on the city’s action list. Staff was directed to prepare a report for later this year on what approach other cities in the province have taken. 

In 2011, Powell River adopted its current bylaw regulating unsightly premises, but it does not specifically apply to regulating vacant and abandoned properties, nor does it give the city the ability to issue violation tickets.

Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said at the meeting that the new bylaw would give city staff a middle option before going to extraordinary measures to solve a problem.

"It gives the city the ability to give a warning and then issue a ticket before moving to the stage of threatening to tear an abandoned building down," said Leishman. "It offers a little more teeth in cleaning up a property.”

City clerk Chris Jackson told the committee he is aware of “quite a few properties” in the city that could be considered unsightly premises.

In May, the city arranged for the removal of a derelict house at 4468 Joyce Avenue after city council approved the action with a remediation order in December. It was the first time council had issued a remediation order with the city following through.

The BC Community Charter gives city governments the power to order property owners to clean up their building or lot. If the owner does not comply, the charter empowers the local government to undertake the work and recoup the costs by adding it to the property owner’s city taxes.

Councillors raised the issue of the city having a vacant building bylaw after it was clear that the difficulty of cleaning up the former Inn at Westview building has only increased as time passed. That building has sat vacant since 2004.

Councillor Russell Brewer said a new bylaw will improve the city’s ability to deal with vacant buildings in a quicker fashion than the current bylaw allows.

“Our unsightly premises bylaw just doesn't have any teeth to it,” said Brewer. “It's grey. There's enough flexibility to it that we can't apply it to anything.”

Mayor Dave Formosa said he would like to see the new bylaw apply to vacant lots in addition to allowing the city to ticket violators with vacant buildings.

Formosa said one example is the city has not been able to do anything about rampant blackberry vines flourishing on a commercial lot on Duncan Street.

Leishman said she would like to see the bylaw direct enforcement officers to give residents a written warning first with specific criteria about what needs to be done to remedy the situation, then if property owners do not comply they would get a ticket and the fine could be graduated.

BC cities such as Maple Ridge have used similar bylaws to deter building owners, some of whom are developers and investors, from purchasing properties and then letting them sit unheated and without power for long periods of time, which attracts squatters and vandalism.

Maple Ridge charges building owners fees that increase incrementally from $150 to $2,400, based on how long a building is left vacant, for regular fire inspection safety checks or for emergency calls to the building.

Building owners in Maple Ridge no longer have months or years to decide what they will do with a building unless they are prepared to pay the fees. Owners are then given a discount on the fees if they come to the city for a demolition or building permit.