Town of Oliver council has ordered a local property owner to clean up his dilapidated property within 60 days of receiving the notice or the town will clean it up and charge the property owner for its efforts.
Council discussed the property located at 159 Walnut Place in Oliver at its regular meeting of council Monday evening.
Paul Sizemore, the town’s director of development services, told council during a presentation Monday evening that staff have been sending notices and letters asking the property owner to clean things up for almost two years.
“This property contains a detached, single-family residence in a residential neighbourhood with multiple out buildings on the property as well,” said Sizemore. “We’re bringing this item to you after more than a year-and-a-half of bylaw enforcement efforts that haven’t resulted in compliance.
“The property has ongoing and worsening conditions that appear to represent an unsafe condition and a nuisance.”
The conditions include a large accumulation of garbage, debris, combustible material, animal waste and unsanitary conditions, he said.
Members of the town’s bylaw enforcement team have been attempting to work with the property owners since August of 2024 through compliance orders, offence notices and multiple site visits, said Sizemore.
“There were short-term improvements in mid-2025, but the overall condition of the property has continued to deteriorate following those short-term improvements,” he said.
The most recent visit to the site was earlier this month and was attended not only by a bylaw officer, but the Oliver Fire Chief and RCMP officers.
“They attended the site to gather and confirm that the conditions are unchanged,” said Sizemore. “The report includes photos from that visit.”
At this point, staff don’t believe that regular routine visits, letters or other enforcement efforts are going to achieve compliance, which left staff with no other choice but to approach council to consider implementing official remedial action against the property owner, said Sizemore.
“A remedial action order is a tool . . . under the Community Charter that council can use when a property is unsafe or a nuisance,” he said.
“If council adopts this resolution tonight, the owner would be ordered to clean up the property within 60 days. That includes removing the garbage and debris, properly disposing of combustible materials and animal waste and just restoring the property to a sanitary condition.”
If the owner doesn’t complete the work within the 60-day time frame, the town will be authorized to return to the property to complete the cleanup work and recover the costs from the owner, he said.
Under the process, if members of council approach the remedial action, the property owner will be formally notified of the action. The owner then has the right to ask council to reconsider the order within 14 days of receiving it, he said.
If they do elect to do that, they will be given the opportunity to appear before council to make a presentation.
Council can then either uphold the remedial action, overturn or alter it, he said.
“Based on everything that is documented in the report, staff are of the opinion that the conditions on the property already meet that threshold for being unsafe and a nuisance according to the Community Charter,” said Sizemore.
Imposing the remedial action notice would give the property owner one final opportunity to resolve outstanding issues within 60 days, while also providing a pathway to the town to ensure that these unsafe and nuisance conditions will be dealt with one way or another, he said.
Coun. Terry Schafer said he took the time to drop by the property to take a look at it and saw two men filling up garbage bags.
“I don’t know if that’s sustainable, so I think we should go ahead with the (staff) recommendation,” he said. “That will give them a little incentive.”
Coun. Aimee Grice said sending out remediation notices on properties like this is a last step by the town.
“I think in these type of situations, I really want to set the residents up for success, but I think 60 days gives them the opportunity to do that,” she said. “Otherwise, I still think we all have the right to live within a community that is safe and sanitary. So something has to be done. It’s time. There have been many contacts already with this residence.”
Council voted unanimously in favour of supporting a staff recommendation to move forward with issuing the remediation action notice.
