Derelict properties: we’re winning in court, not on the street

As SooToday reporters have relentlessly described in recent months, the City of Sault Ste. Marie has had remarkable success in prosecuting owners of vacant, derelict properties.

Judges have been slapping landlords with big fines.

But Jeffrey King of the city's legal department will concede on Monday that he's had little success in actually ridding our streets of dangerous eyesores.

"It has been two years since the passing of the initial amendments to the property standards bylaw," says King.

"While success in the courtroom continues, actual street-level change is slow to be seen in the community," King admits in a report prepared for Monday's city council meeting.

"Summer is where tall grass will begin to be obvious and is one indicator of vacant buildings, the other being unmaintained driveways in the winter."

King says we still have approximately 90 vacant properties in Sault Ste. Marie and he'll ask city council on Monday to toughen up our property standards and yard maintenance bylaws.

He'll also ask for a new vacant building bylaw aimed at eventually introducing a vacant building tax.

If King gets his way, the city will immediately set up a vacant properties registry to determine buildings that would be subject to a future vacant properties tax.

Other municipalities are charting a similar course. 

"Ottawa has recently implemented both a vacant building registry and vacant tax system," King says.

"Staff also reviewed the cities of Aurora, Cornwall, Brantford, Hamilton, St. Catharines, and Welland, all of which have implemented vacant property registries.

"The cities of Brampton and London have specific bylaws for vacant buildings, but these bylaws do not consist of a registry/fee.

"Northern communities such as North Bay and Thunder Bay have also developed a vacant building bylaw and registry system.

"In some of the bylaws reviewed, and a recommended approach by staff, is to act against buildings that remain vacant for a full calendar year. These prolonged vacant buildings can be ordered demolished if within the criteria to do so, or otherwise looked at for expropriation, if appropriate," King says.

He's thinking of a $250 registration fee, which would recover $22,500 to pay for time the city is already dedicating to unofficial vacant building tracking.

"The registry would have specific registry exemptions against registering seasonal homes, property that is otherwise vacant due to out-of-town health treatment, and building with an active permit to be constructed or renovated," King says.

Among other things, King wants to use his proposed vacant building bylaw to sharpen the definition of 'graffiti' and make owners of vacant properties responsible for removing it.

The current streets bylaw prohibits anyone who “defaces or disfigures a public or private building, wall, fence, railing, sign, monument, post, pole or other property in or adjoining any street by... daubing with paint or other substance.”

Monday's city council meeting will be live-streamed on SooToday starting at 4:30 p.m.