A Timmins councillor is calling for the city to get tough on property standards.
At the Sept. 10 council meeting, Coun. Noella Rinaldo gave a presentation on derelict buildings across the city, asking for tougher bylaws.
“We can also work towards an empty building tax to make it less attractive for owners to keep their buildings empty,” she said.
Over the past few years, she said councillors have seen and been notified by residents about properties falling below city bylaw standards.
“Some of these buildings are vacant, some are abandoned, some are negligent, seen as eyesores and magnets for graffiti, squatting and increasingly criminal activities around drugs. These buildings are becoming public safety hazards,” she said.
The presentation included examples of buildings in the city.
One was a Sixth Avenue property that Coun. Andrew Marks visited
“It was absolutely disgusting,” he said.
He described a leaning fence with nails jutting out, exposed needles in the driveway and garbage.
“Rats, feces, urine, needles. A bus let off children right in front of that last driveway and it was absolutely terrible. The neighbours value their neighbourhood, they’ve been taking care of it,” Marks said.
For sites that don't meet the city's property standards, clerk Steph Plamateer said each scenario is different for the steps that are involved.
He explained that it depends on if a property is in tax arrears, or if there's an absentee landlord and the taxes are paid up. He said all eventually lead to a court process.
While he's happy to dedicate additional resources to the issue, he cautioned council.
He said right now, there are complaints from neighbours looking at the properties.
“But you also have to understand that the minute we start to increase enforcement, you’re going to be hearing calls from the people who are on the other end of that,” said Palmateer.
He said council is going to have to support enforcement services.
"You can’t be sending emails behind the scenes saying ‘oh can we give a three-month extension, can you give extensions here’. It has to be we’re going to enforce it, we’re going to enforce it,” he said.
Palmateer is also looking at new options that he will come back to council with.
“There are communities that are trying some new and innovative ways to address this issue, which we will be looking into to see if those are potential solutions to our problem here in Timmins. We’re also looking into things called administrative monetary penalties where we can increase the fines for these derelict property owners, which may negatively incentivise them to fix the problem or start facing heftier fines that would continue to accumulate,” he said.
