Council hears details of path forward towards enforcement of property maintenance bylaw

 

A copy of the February 3rd letter to Property owners
related to property management obligations in the city
(From the City of PR)

Prince Rupert City Council members received a bit of a thumbnail sketch Monday night as to how the City plans to move forward with enforcement plans, when it comets towards building owners who have not been active with the concept of building  and property maintenance.

The topic came up as part of a question from Councillor Barry Cunningham who noted that the City has now delivered its letters to property owners advising of the city's plans to enforce the rules.

"I know we sent out letters to the downtown merchants to start cleaning up their business exteriors and that and I would just like to know Mr., Mayor where we are with that"

Mayor Brain noted that it had only been three weeks since the letters went out, turning the discussion over to Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller to provide for the next steps in the process.

"The letters were sent out approximately three weeks ago, I believe on March the third will be the four week anniversary of the letters being sent. After March the third we will be doing a comprehensive review of all the businesses for which received letters and follow up with respect to various bylaws such as property maintenance or the nuisance bylaws." -- Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller

As a follow up the Mayor returned to a theme he spoke to in January observing that the plan is to take some action this year and target some of the really unsightly areas of the city, noting that the property owners can use this last month to read over the letter before the city moves forward to consistently move ahead with the process.

Councillor Cunningham had one other question of note on the topic, related to what happens if the property owners don't comply and what options the City has at that point.

Noting of the existing bylaw provisions Ms. Miller observed:

"If they don't comply then we can proceed with fines and we can clean it up ourselves and place it on their taxes"

You can review the current Property Maintenance Bylaw here, the rest of the City's Bylaws are available from this link to the City's website.

You can take in the conversation through the City's Video Archive starting at the one hour, one minute mark of Monday's Council Session.

For more notes related to Monday's Council Session, see our Council Timeline feature here.

A wider overview of Council Discussion themes can be explored here.