Higher fees, safety standards proposed for Winnipeg vacant building owners

Owners of vacant and boarded-up buildings could pay higher fees and be held to higher standards for securing their properties if Winnipeg city council approves proposed bylaw changes.

Speaking to a motion he brought forward to the executive policy committee on Tuesday, Mayor Scott Gillingham said he has met with senior officials from the Winnipeg Police Service, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, bylaw office and public works department to ask how the city can cut down on the number of fires plaguing vacant and derelict buildings.

They all said the city should take the enhanced boarding standards laid out in Winnipeg's vacant buildings bylaw — which were introduced last year to address frequent break-ins at problematic properties — and make them the new standard for all vacant buildings.

The enhanced standards include thicker plywood and bracing covering doors and windows, as well as fasteners that would make the boards more difficult to remove.

Gillingham's motion also proposes raising costs for owners of vacant buildings. It increases the inspection fee for properties that do not comply with the vacant buildings bylaw, from $1,355 to $1,685 for the first inspection.

It also increases costs for owners who keep their buildings vacant for years at a time, adding escalator fees for subsequent inspections — $500 per inspection for properties that comply with the bylaw, and $1,000 for non-compliant properties.

The motion also doubles the current empty building fee from one per cent of the most recent assessed property value to two per cent.

"Any time our police service has to go in, any time bylaw [officers] have to go in, any time [the] fire-paramedic service has to go into a vacant and derelict building, it presents an element of danger to our staff," Gillingham said during Tuesday's meeting.

Property and development committee chair Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) says she supports the move — one of a number of city initiatives intended to cut down on the number of vacant buildings, and the fires and criminal activity often associated with them.

'A more aggressive move'

Last year, the city increased the number of bylaw officers and began charging property owners for the costs of fire responses to vacant buildings.

"So taken together, we're hoping that this is a bit of a more aggressive move to getting us, as a city, unburdened from the vacancies, the dereliction, the risks and the related arsons and fires that we're seeing too many of," Rollins said in an interview.

Winnipeg firefighters responded to a record number of vacant building fires last year.

Spence neighbourhood resident Cheryl Martens has documented vacant and derelict buildings in her community. She recently counted 23 boarded-up properties, as well as 60 properties where buildings had been torn down and not replaced.

She supports the tougher rules for owners, but she says it doesn't address the underlying problem of why there are so many vacant properties in the first place.

"There needs to be a new effort to try and encourage either the city or somebody to build on these properties, because the vacant lots are just sort of a reminder that things are going downhill in the neighbourhood," she said.

Gillingham has also directed city staff to explore ways of speeding up the process for the city to take title from properties that have been left derelict for long periods of time.

"I want to see these properties converted into residential development, and so we are trying to use a series of incentives and a series of deterrents to get people to deal with their property, to not sit on vacant and derelict property," Gillingham said in an interview.

The executive policy committee unanimously approved the motion, which still needs approval from council.