City has high expectations for its newly-created property standards position

The City of North Bay and City Council have been talking tough for years about enforcement of municipal property standards and, with the addition of a new contract position, are confident they now have the requisite tools and appropriate staffing level to ensure compliance.

Tuesday, as required under the Building Code Act, Council amended the by-law and officially appointed Kristin VanDerGeld as a property standards officer, as well as a municipal enforcement officer for the City of North Bay.

Coun. Scott Robertson has long been a proponent of enforcing property standards, especially when it comes to derelict and vacant buildings.

"I'm really happy to see this new staff member coming forward and I think we're already starting to see the impacts of this now that Council has demonstrated this is a priority and we're putting resources toward this," he said during Tuesday's regular meeting. "I think the development community and property owners are getting the message that we're going to be taking a hard line on vacant and derelict buildings."

The City's Planning & Building Services had initially sought a salaried full-time property standards officer in discussions for this year's budget but Council opted to fund the position on a two-year contract basis to start. After figuring in training expenses for the new officer and the subsequent freeing up of resources within the building inspector division, the cost cited at budget time for the first eight months was $24,000 while the full second year carried a budget line of $115,000.

Coun. Johanne Brousseau chairs the community services committee that oversees property standards. Brousseau welcomed VanDerGeld "to the team and to North Bay...this is a new contract position that was supported by Council in the 2021 budget."

Deputy Mayor Tanya Vrebosch noted there is often confusion from citizens as to what constitutes a by-law or property standards issue and the addition of this officer will help clear that up.

The plan is for the new officer to "tackle some of the property standards issues in our community [so they] will be dealt with," Vrebosch observed.

Robertson added the vacant and derelict buildings are "a really big problem in our city and it has a lot of secondary and tertiary negative impacts on our community and the health and well-being of our community." 

Prior to the officer's hiring, it had already been a big year for the City in the property standards department.

In late 2020, Council approved an incentive for property owners focused on providing rebates for the landfill tipping fees associated with demolishing and redeveloping derelict and vacant buildings.

Then, after years of delays exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the protracted property standards battle between the City and owners of the former Sands Motel property was resolved as the building was razed, the land cleared, and the owners held responsible for the demolition costs.

Watch BayToday's videos of the Sands demolition: Demolition day: Turning the Sands to rubble and Demolition night: Last call for the Library Lounge 

Of course, the proverbial property standards elephant is not so much in a room as it is located at the corner of Cassells Street and Seventh Avenue.

Former mayoral candidate Dan Seguin, the owner of multiple properties in that area has long had an adversarial relationship with the City, something Coun. Chris Mayne spoke about when Coun. George Maroosis wondered if adding the new position meant he "could look forward to the corner of Seventh Avenue and Cassells Street being fixed up?"

Manager of Planning & Building Services Beverley Hillier pushed for the position to be added to the department.

"The new position would focus purely on property standards matters related to everything under the Property Standards and Vital Services by-law, including vacant and derelict buildings," Hillier told Council. "It is aligned with our overall strategy of trying to deal with vacant and derelict buildings."

Hillier said during budget talks the new position would present "opportunities for redevelopment and increased maintenance of buildings within the community." Property standards issues are currently dealt with on an "emergency basis, often with a number of them going unattended or unresolved year over year," and the City annually receives an average of  "170 to 200 property standards complaints," a number that has "not gone down year over year over year." 

She added, "The enforcement side of property standards takes up an extreme amount of time for staff in trying to achieve compliance — in most cases, we do achieve compliance, it just takes a concerted effort to follow up with property owners."