North Cowichan council has issued a remedial order to have an accessory building removed at 9384 Cottonwood Road, east of Fuller Lake.
This has been a prominent nuisance property and North Cowichan Mayor Al Siebring said this accessory building needs to come down.
“There’s an enforcement file here that goes back a decade, repeated violations of various and sundry rules, this was built as a studio and keeps being used as a residential facility without proper sewage disposal,” said Siebring.
He added, “Island Health has put some orders on the property because of that, there’s raw sewage laying on the surface of the property.”
North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP Inspector Chris Bear said there have been more than one hundred complaints (103) about this property in the last three years.
“In 2017 there was 18, in 2018 we had 32, in 2019 we’ve had 53 occurrences so far,” said Bear. “It’s quite substantial and the calls range from everything under the sun.”
Webster Parker, the owner of the property, is planning to appeal this decision and Siebring explains the next steps following that appeal.
“If council upholds this decision on appeal, the order says the landowner has 30 days to take the building down from the date when he is served with the final notice to do so,” said Siebring.
“If he doesn’t take it down, then the municipality will move in and take it down on his behalf and the costs of doing that will be added to his property tax bill,” Siebring added.
Bear said all of the calls connected to this property are a drain on policing resources.
“This one, isolated, rural property is causing a substantial drain on our policing resources, when I talk to any member of the detachment, Cottonwood Road comes up automatically and they’re familiar with this property,” Bear said.
Bear said this property has been subject to every offence under the sun, you name it, it’s probably happened at 9384 Cottonwood Road.
