A nuisance property owner in the Hart will now have to demolish and remove an abandoned trailer after Prince George city council voted to take remedial action in order to eliminate the unsafe conditions.
The property, located at 7003 Adam Drive – which is a mobile home that has now been abandoned and boarded up – has been on the city’s radar since March 2020.
“Essentially the pictures are worth a thousand words. This is one of the worst properties that I have seen. I have seen a lot of bad properties over the course of my career,” said Charlotte Peters, city bylaw services manager and former RCMP officer, during tonight’s (March 22) city council meeting.
Under the city’s new nuisance abatement and cost recovery bylaw, the owner, Ian Peters (no relation), will now have until April 30 to comply with the city’s requests or else be billed the cost of the work by way of property taxes.
Charlotte Peters says the property meets the definition of a nuisance, which considered the behavior of the occupants as well as unsightly conditions.
She also referred to the property as "very simply put a crack house and that is what this was".
History of property nuisance
The condition of the property was brought to the city’s attention on March 6, 2020, when bylaw services responded to a noise complaint.
That’s when bylaw officers discovered that multiple people occupied the residence who were known to police and noted at this point the property was also unsightly as it was littered with debris and derelict vehicles.
The city attempted to contact the owner of the property at least six times by telephone leaving voicemail messages each time, but received no response.
Further attempts to contact Peters including leaving messages with a tenant, who happened to be known to police as a prolific offender, also went unanswered.
Last April, the property was found to be in foreclosure, but this process was delayed because of COVID-19.
The property was inspected again on Aug. 18 and again deemed unsightly but information gathering by Bylaw Services suggested the foreclosure process was near completion and therefore the occupants would be evicted and the problems would ultimately be resolved.
However, beginning Aug. 10, there were multiple complaints from Canada Post about the dangerous and at-large dogs residing at the property.
“It was very clear to me that these pit bulls were being used as protection for the people who were residing at the property,” said Peters.
These dogs had charged the postal workers on multiple occasions resulting in termination of mail service to the neighborhood which was not able to be restored until mid-December 2020.
“It was very impactful on the community as people who didn’t have transportation or who had difficulty getting downtown were then required to go downtown to the main post office to pick up their mail.”
On Feb. 4, 2021, the RCMP advised Bylaw Services that the property was vacant. Bylaw Officers then attended and confirmed this discovering the property had been abandoned and left insecure.
There was a large amount of debris all over the property, including 17 derelict vehicles.
Due to the resulting public safety hazard, bylaw officers served a “board up" order to the owner of the property by leaving a copy of the order attached to the door of the trailer.
“The city came in and secured the property to keep it safe,” said Peters, adding the city still has had no contact with the property owner.
“Having this property abandoned in the state it is now is a terrific opportunity to remediate the situation because we don’t have to worry about evicting anyone.”
Location of frequent police and fire calls
The property has also been the subject of frequent calls for emergency and municipal services, which Peters says she doesn’t believe will stop even though the property has been abandoned.
“I have no reason to believe it is going to stop even though there is no one living in that residence the criminal activity is continuing,” says Peters.
“Today, I went up to the neighbourhood and I had occasion to speak to a 20-year neighbour and I asked ‘What has been happening since that place has been abandoned?’ and he was very quick to tell me that not a lot has changed.”
The city says, since August, members of the Prince George RCMP detachment have been called to this location 45 times, approximately once per week.
The nature of these complaints ranges from noise to drug activity to dangerous dogs to breaches of bail violations.
Over the same duration, Prince George Fire Rescue has attended this location five times. The nature of these calls has been medical (overdose) and for burning copper wire. Peters says the nature of these calls is indicative of criminal activity.
Prince George Bylaw Services has also been called to this location at least 17 times since May 2020. The city says this is an approximation as there are multiple visits within each complaint but complaints have been received more than once per month.
City unanimously approves remedial action
On March 4, 2021, the city served Peters with a notice, under the authority of the Nuisance and Abatement and Cost Recovery Bylaw, informing him of the impending remedial action, by again attaching it to the door of the property.
When it came to a vote, council unanimously voted on all of the resolutions associated with the remedial action against the property.
“There are neighbourhoods all over the community that can look at a bylaw like this and with a proactive bylaw service like we have and I think they take some hope that we are going to go in there and clean it up and the property owner is going to pay for it,” said Coun. Brian Skakun.
The city says to date there has been no contact with the property owner and during the course of the investigation, no action appeared to ever be taken by the property owner to modify the behaviour of the various tenants that ultimately had a detrimental effect on the neighborhood.
Council has also approved administration to record and charge the owner with the cost of any future municipal services called to the property.
All attendance by Bylaw Enforcement, Prince George RCMP and Prince George Fire Rescue will now be tracked and billed to the owner and collected by way of property taxes if necessary.
“Throw the book at them and let’s go as hard as we can,” said Coun. Kyle Sampson.
“I have no time for people like this in our community.”
The owner will be notified of the city’s demands by Friday (March 26), when another notice will be posted at the property.
“We have been waiting patiently to tackle and use this tool that we have,” said Mayor Lyn Hall of the nuisance bylaw.
"We have neighbours and residents in this community that are depending on us to take care of this and turn this neighbourhood back into a neighbourhood.”
