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| The Spring time ritual of discussing Prince Rupert's unsightly premises returned to City Council on Monday |
It's become as much of a spring ritual as cleaning up your front lawn, but for Councillor Barry Cunningham the lack of action in enforcing municipal bylaw options on unsightly properties is proving to be a frustrating thing.
Mr. Cunningham regularly brings the topic to the attention of his fellow Council members, but as can be seen by that frequency, not much ever seems to get done about making downtown property owners take action towards the clean up.
Monday night, the Council member raised the issue one more time.
"Before this all started, the pandemic, we were going to start bringing people before council or going after people for the Property Maintenance Bylaw and that and I just wonder where we are with that situation.
I know it's going to be difficult but I see no reason why we can't bring people one meeting at a time or something like that and start cleaning this town up.
You know there's stuff downtown that should be taken care of and it should be our priority and then after that getting to the residential areas.
It's getting to the point where there's more and more cars, four flat tires, unlicensed and people don't seem to give a care. So I think it's something, I know our bylaw people are busy, but I think it's something we should be looking at"
Neither the Mayor, or the City Manager followed up on his comments with any advice as to what, if any actions the City could take at this time, in order to address the Councillors concerns.
The Property Maintenance Bylaw BL3297, 2010 notes how Council has the authority to regulate and control pollution, nuisances, pests, noxious weeds, unsightly premises, unwholesome or noxious materials, and odors and impose requirements in relation to bylaw enforcement and related matters.
The document provides for much in the way of guidance for property owners on the expectations of city council when it comes to property maintenance.
Though as would seem to be the case as outlined by Mr. Cunningham, it's a section of the Bylaw collection that doesn't seem to get much in the way of consultation, or action on from bylaw enforcement these days.
You can review Mr. Cunningham's commentary from the City's Video Archive from Monday starting at the thirty four minute mark.
A look back at some of his past inquiries on the theme can be explored below:
January 2020 -- Owners of Unsightly properties put on notice, Council set to take up issue of enforcement in 2020
March 2019 -- City of Prince Rupert to take action on Derelict vehicles
June 2018 -- Plans for waterfront eyesore on the mind of Councillor Cunningham
May 2018 -- Lack of civic clean up plans questioned by Councillor Cunningham
March 2018 -- Councillor Cunningham looks to property tax solution to issue of derelict and unsightly properties
May 2017 -- Few options available to Council to force Clean Up of downtown eyesores
February 2017-- A not so inviting vision for tourists, or would be investors to be found in the downtown area
For more notes on Monday's Council session see our Council Timeline Feature here.
A wider overview of City Council themes can be found here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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