For the second time this year, the District of North Vancouver has told a homeowner to fix his property or risk having it seized and sold at auction.
Council voted Monday night to impose remedial action for a home at 2525 Panorama Dr. The 1980 home was built over top of Panorama Creek, supported by concrete walls. After visiting the property in June, staff found the wall partially collapsed and seriously undermined by erosion. The property also had berms installed without proper permits, putting other properties at risk.
“If left unmitigated, erosion is expected to continue along the base of the walls and result in ongoing destabilization of the walls. The foundations of both the main house and the support column for the house addition are located in close proximity to the creek. Therefore, it is also possible that continued erosion may eventually result in destabilization of the house foundation,” an engineer’s report stated.
“Material that enters the creek from collapse of the wall could result in blockage of the downstream culvert or blockage of the creek in the vicinity of the house. Either scenario could lead to increased maintenance efforts to clear the culvert and also the increased potential for impact to neighbouring properties and residents in the case that debris flood or flood discharge overtops the channel banks.”
The home’s owner, Gary Wilson, has until Oct. 30 to provide the district with an overall remediation plan, prepared by a professional engineer or geoscientist, to address the concrete walls and the alteration to the creek channel.
He then must carry out the action plan to the sanctification of the district’s chief building official. If the homeowner doesn’t comply, the district may seek a court order forcing remediation.
District staff may also do the work or hire contractors to do it. Should that happen, the cost of the work will fall to the owner. If he doesn’t pay by Dec. 31, the district can seize the home and sell it at tax auction in 2016.
But all of this may come as a surprise to Wilson. Staff said they had been unable to track him down. “The property appears abandoned. I don’t know that for sure – it doesn’t look like anybody’s been living there for quite some time,” said Fiona Dercole, the district’s manager of public safety.
The district currently has eight properties it is preparing to sell at tax auction on Sept. 25. The original owners still have one year to find the funds needed to take care of back taxes plus interest and reclaim their property before the sales are finalized.
District council voted in June to force a homeowner at 2755 Panorama Dr. to remove 20 years of debris, yard cars, heaps of construction materials and derelict industrial equipment or face similar repercussions. Those homeowners are complying with the order, according to district staff.
