Clean-up orders handed to two homes

Discarded appliances, tarps covering debris and run-down vehicles all litter a Spruce Street home city council is stepping in to clean up.

When Prince George bylaw staff visited the property they detected the unmistakable smell of human excrement, because the current resident is allowing transients to camp out in the backyard where there's no bathroom.

Aerial photos of the home show the slow accumulation of garbage on the property, from a 2006 photo that offered some green space of the yard to a 2014 photo with blue tarp flanking the home on all sides.

But with 2221 Spruce Street's owner dead and his elderly common-law partner ill in the hospital, staff haven't had much luck with her son, who currently lives at the home, to fix the problem.

"Her adult son seems both unwilling and unable to clean the property," said bylaw services manager Fred Crittenden, adding the current situation is the worst it's ever been.

These details were presented to council Monday night before it unanimously voted to order clean-up by the end of the July or city staff would take charge and bill the property for the trouble.

Over the years, the occupants showed some level of "voluntary compliance" and would clean up the yard to an acceptable level when complaints rolled in.

"Each time it returned to a state that was unacceptable," Crittenden said. "It's evident that their idea of cleaning up is just to put stuff out on the boulevard and hope it goes away."

Staff have tried to reach out for other solutions - the dead owner's daughter lives in Ontario and supports staff efforts to deal with the eyesore, but can't herself return to Prince George.

"I think it's a sad situation and you look at the pictures and you can't help feel some sadness and some empathy but in the end it's about being fair to your neighbours," said Coun. Brian Skakun. "This property has to be cleaned up."

Coun. Garth Frizzell agreed the remedial approach is the right course of action, but cautioned council to tread carefully.

"This is some of the most dangerous work we do because this is exercising among of the most powerful authority that council has so we have to be diligent in ensuring it's the right choice," he said.

"It clearly is but this is where we have to step lightly because we're going into private property and we are exercising authority we can only use in dangerous situations like this."

The owners have two weeks to request an extension from council, as do the executors of another property on Mytting Road, which council also unanimously voted to force to fix-up.

Staff said the 2444 Mytting Road home is collapsing and should be demolished. In its case, the owner is also dead so the work for remedial action would be placed on its tax notice and if the property sells, the city would be paid back out of that, staff said.

As council deals with problem properties and the word gets out, staff have found some to be more compliant.

"We are seeing some improvement on response to us," said Crittenden of property owners. "They don't want to be in a position like this."