Penticton city council acts on Brunswick Street nuisance property

PENTICTON – City council agreed to take action on a derelict property near Penticton’s downtown core at this afternoon’s council meeting.

Staff presented a recommendation to impose action consisting of declaring 175 Brunswick Street a nuisance property and have the residence and adjacent shed on the property demolished.

The city would also implement a rodent remediation program, cut back overgrown vegetation and remove a derelict vehicle and camper on the property.

The remedial actions are to be completed no later than Oct. 31 of this year.

City bylaw supervisor Tina Siebert said the property had a history of enforcement dating back to 2011. She said a death in the family and transfer of ownership has caused some delays in the city’s efforts to deal with the property owner but cited years of city, police and fire inspections on the property and numerous complaints from the public as reasons to move forward with remedial action.

In 2019, B.C. Assessment valued the land at $341,000 and buildings at $95,200, which would be enough for the city to recover expenses for demolishing the building and cleaning up the property.

“There’s no way you can clean this property up, it’s gone beyond it,” Coun. Jake Kimberly said.

Mayor John Vassilaki asked why this type of action took so long to implement, Siebert replying this particular case was unique in terms of the death of the property owner, the subsequent will and property transfer taking extra time.

She said the city needed to focus more on similar properties, prioritize them and “tighten up.”

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