Winnipeg targets neglected, derelict properties 'to reduce neighbourhood blight'
'It's about the health and welfare and the safety and security of our communities,' mayor says
More ways to tackle derelict properties in Winnipeg are being proposed, including expediting demolition permits and forcing owners to install security fences, lighting and cameras around problem buildings.
The measures are part of two reports that will go to city committees for review and discussion before eventually making their way to council for a vote.
"Ultimately, we want the number of vacant and derelict buildings in this city to be reduced drastically," Mayor Scott Gillingham said at a news conference in front of the Coronado Apartments, a vacant building on Furby Street just north of Ellice Avenue.
"We want properties to be redeveloped. We want housing where there's not currently housing. We want neighbourhood blight to be eliminated."
The city has seen the number of derelict properties soar in the past five years, from 471 buildings in 2018 to 685 now, Gillingham said.
Those structures not only impact property values and pose safety hazards, they "contribute to a sense of decay," he said.
"It's about the health and welfare and the safety and security of our communities. It's about ensuring that every neighbourhood in Winnipeg is a place where people feel proud to live, safe to explore and secure to invest."
The reports call for the hiring of four more bylaw officers, the cost of which will be offset by increased enforcement revenues.
The officers will work with neighbourhoods to identify problematic buildings, increase enforcement and perform inspections. The property owners will be required to pay the inspection fees.
It is hoped the enhanced measures will provide incentive to building owners to respond more promptly to city orders, Gillingham said.
If adopted by council, he hopes to see the changes begin to take effect in July.
Earlier this month, the city started charging owners for firefighting costs at vacant buildings.
"This has been a series of incremental changes and these two reports reflect yet another step," Gillingham said on Tuesday.
He called the changes a clear message the city is committed to breathing new life into those buildings or making room for new possibilities.
Coun. Sherri Rollins, chair of the standing policy committee on property and development, which will review the reports, said there are proposed administrative changes to streamline and shorten the time frame between the application process and demolition approval.
One of the changes would see demolition permits issued without building permits for replacement structures in place.
Asked if that makes demolition too easy, Gillingham said he'd rather see an empty lot than a building routinely being broken into and set ablaze.
"Ultimately, we don't want empty lots. We want lots developed. We want housing," he said.
"But given the two options, it's better to have a safer open space than it is to have a building that can become problematic and can really be a safety concern."
There are vacant buildings across the city but the impact is more evident in some wards, said Coun. Cindy Gilroy, who represents the Daniel McIntyre ward, where the news conference was held.
Another property just up the block from the news conference has been the subject of many complaints and compliance orders. Those empty buildings are a magnet for trouble and take up valuable space that could be used to address the housing crisis, Gilroy said.
"We want to improve our neighbourhoods, to reduce neighbourhood blight … so that we can establish the housing that is really, really needed," she said.
Dean Lucyshyn, who lives nearby on Sherbrook Street, was happy to hear the city taking action but isn't sure anything short of demolition will do — particularly for far-gone properties like the Coronado.
"This thing should've been torn down a long time ago," he said, calling it a gang building where he believes drugs were often sold.
Fencing something like that off, and adding security, won't make much difference, Lucyshyn said.
"If they're going to do it, they're going to do it. In this neighbourhood, that's just the way it is," he said.
As for negligent property owners, "how do you get somebody to care when they don't care?" he added.
Two properties away from the Coronado is a playground, and Lucyshyn worries for the safety of kids, like his own five-year-old son, Dakota Newton.
He would like to see community gardens set up in the place of the apartment, to give back to the neighbourhood.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Josh Crabb