Quesnel Building Will Be Demolished After Owner Ignores Calls to Do It Himself

Time has run out for a property owner in Quesnel to demolish a building that has twice been the site of a fire.

Quesnel City Council gave the owner until October 15th to clean up th site at 878 Abbott Drive that also includes several derelict vehicles, two campers, an RV and a tonne of debris.

Tanya Turner is the Director of Development Services with the city…

“At this point all of the materials have not been cleaned up or taken away. In fact, the majority has not. So at this point the city has contracted a contractor who will go in and clean up the site as soon as they are able to arrange equipment. I expect it to be done over next week.”

Turner says the city didn’t take this action lightly…

“There is a whole process that is required in doing what we call remedial action requirement, so there were a number of complaints about the property, and then of course there were two fires at the property which raised significant concerns regarding safety.”

Turner says the bill for this work will be charged back to the owner of the property…

“The dollars that are accumulated for the clean-up, as the property owner was unable to do these work themselves, will be paid out by the city but will be charged back on the property taxes of this property.”

While rare, Turner confirms that this isn’t the first time that the City has had to go this route for a nuisance property.

The last time was when the infamous brown cabins were taken down on Lewis Drive back in 2015.