A property on North Kimberley must be demolished, says Greenwood city council.
After considering a report on action taken by the City of Surrey requesting that a fire damaged building be demolished, council decided to take the same action in regards to the Dombrosky property on North Kimberly.
Staff was directed to write a letter to the owners of the property giving them 14 days to dispute the notice or 30 days to demolish the building. If, after 30 days, no action has been taken by the owner, the city will be in a position to remove the building and have expenses added to the property taxes for the lot.
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Council received a summary of a study of the Anaconda water system to be undertaken this summer by the MMM Group for the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary.
The study will gather information to help identify the long-term options for ownership, rate structure, and operation of the system. A financial analysis will provide a 20-year projection taking into consideration improvements to the existing system and new hookups.
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Mayor Nipper Kettle said he had met with the Greenwood Board of Trade (BOT) where it was agreed to try to set up a one-day round table in September between council, local groups and the BOT to discuss setting up a Greenwood economic development committee.
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Greenwood Museum was given a grant-in-aid for $6,740. They reported that the visitor count was up slightly last year with 8,226 visitors to the museum.
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Councillor Barry Noll reported a survey of garbage being sent to the landfill shows as much as 60 per cent of it is made up of recyclables and compostable materials. He warned that when the regional district begins to strictly enforce landfill regulations, the city will take a hit.
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After much discussion about volunteer appreciation, it was decided by council to prepare a certificate of appreciation and take an advertisement in the local newspaper thanking Les Williams for his 15 years of volunteering to organize the Founder’s Day events.
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After city administrator Robin Dalziel gave council an overview of the Board of Variance as laid out in provincial legislation, it was decided that future variance requests will be brought forward to council for their consideration and only those requests relating to hardship are to be presented to the Board of Variance.
“This is taking a very straightforward reading of the Local Government Act and the sections relating to getting a variance either through Sec 922 a variance permit or Sec 899-902 an order from the Board of Variance,” explained Dalziel.
Council approved two variance applications later in the meeting, both dealing with setback issues. Doug Timmins received variance for construction of a garage and Wes Prentice to add a deck.
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The city has sent a letter to the owner of dogs that have been the cause of frequent complaint by Walt and Barbara Harris.
Mayor Nipper Kettle said the letter was dated July 15 and is a follow-up to a letter sent by the city in November.
“We would like to know if you are now in compliance with the city’s zoning bylaw 6873. If you are not, what are your intentions?”
While Kettle said that he felt the letter should have set a specific time to come into compliance, he added that the only way to deal with such complaints right now is by sending letters. “Noise or anything else, we have to make sure they are complying and if not then we have to consider other courses of action,” he said.
Other members of council said that there are other property owners who are not abiding by the bylaw and. “I don’t know why they aren’t involved instead of this one individual,” said Councillor Lee Cudworth.
The city currently pays for animal control through the regional district but the service has been without an animal control officer since June 1, 2013.