(file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Property standards

City to tackle issue of derelict properties

Mar 20, 2023 | 2:04 PM

The City of North Battleford is continuing with its work to deal with unsafe derelict buildings.

The issue was discussed again at the recent council meeting.

Coun. Kelli Hawtin noted there were a couple of properties demolished earlier in March, and asked for an update on any other properties the city is dealing with.

“We want to focus of course on derelict properties, and ensuring that we are enforcing safety standards in the community in dealing with these properties in an appropriate way,” she said.

North Battleford fire chief and city director of protective services, Lindsay Holm, said his department and the city’s planning department are tackling this initiative.

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“We’re working hard to try to ensure that the properties that are in the city are safe and habitable,” he said. “The ones that are proceeding to demolition orders, are ones that were either involved in a fire and burned out beyond repair. [They] will be demolished. The other ones that were initiated [for removal] by the planning department are ones that the property owners have failed to comply with [repair] orders for an extended period of time.”

Holm said when the owner fails to make repairs or board a building up, as required under the bylaw, it can be problematic for the city, and takes more time to deal with.

“At a certain point in time, that committee that we struck, we’re looking at a bunch of different properties in the city to evaluate those types of circumstances,” he said.

Mayor David Gillan expressed his concerns about properties that haven’t been in use in years, in particular some problem buildings on 100 Street.

“At the south end, there are a number of buildings that have been vacant for a very long time.” he said. “That’s been over six, seven, or eight years. The boards are getting more, and the glass is getting less.”

Holm said the committee that was formed is addressing a number of different scenarios.

“That was one of the reasons we went ahead and moved forward with that committee, because a lot of the times I am not always being notified of buildings that are in that kind of state of repair.”

Holm said typically when he responds to a building in this type of condition, it’s usually due to a fire.

“What we want to do is try to develop a little bit more of a proactive approach to this,” he said. “This has been a long-standing problem in the city.”

When buildings become dilapidated, Holm said, the owners are not going to necessarily take the required steps to ensure those buildings are habitable again, or make sure they are secured, so people can’t go into them and cause more damage.

“It will be a work in progress,” he said. “It is a long and lengthy process. To take a building down, it usually takes in the neighbourhood of 105 days to do it under the Nuisance Abatement Bylaw, to ensure the property owner has the right amount of time to do that.”

Holm said in some cases the city has been able to reduce that time to about two months, as long as the owners don’t take any steps to repair the building, and don’t make any appeals to council. If they do go through the appeal process, then the city can remove the building after that period is over.

“That’s the one thing the committee is going to do,” he said.

City Manager Randy Patrick said administration will be able to provide council with a list of properties the city is looking at that are problematic, during a separate in-camera meeting.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow