Greenwood council working on getting problem property cleaned up

By Shara JJ Cooper

Greenwood city councillors are hopeful a property on North Kimberly Avenue will be cleaned up soon.

The property has been a dangerous and an eyesore for years, since it was ravaged by a housefire, and has been unoccupied ever since.

Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Robin Dalziel said this is a problem he inherited when he took the position of CAO. The previous CAO tried to address the issue but was always blocked by legal issues. This kind of situation is common in municipalities around the country and is challenging to handle.

Greenwood city staff have been researching their options and found a letter from the City of Surrey that address a problem property that had a similar situation to the one in Greenwood.

This gave them a new avenue to move forward.

"I need to produce similar documents to theirs," said Dalziel.

It's easier said than done. All the legal "Is" and "Ts" need to be dotted and crossed before the letter can be delivered.

The letter would include a copy of all the previous communication attemps and would give the property owners 30 days to clean up the property. For this particular piece of property, the buidling would need to be torn down. Even then, the door won't be closed on the issue.

"In the first two weeks... they can appeal it," said Dalziel, noting the issue could continue to go backwards and forwards.

Regardless of how long it takes, city staff agree something needs to be done.

"It is dangerous. It's dangerous if transients decided to sleep there and it's unattractive," said Dalziel. "It's definitely not a good situation."