The owner of a burnt-out house on Ellis Street has just a couple of weeks to clean up the property or the City of Penticton will do it for him.
597 Ellis St., the scene of a boarding house fire in January 2011, was declared a nuisance property by council on May 13, setting the wheels in motion for the city to clear the property. The property owner was given the chance to speak to the issue at the May 21 council meeting, but no one came forward, even though a representative had attended the first.
“The property owner has applied and collected the demolition permit that would enable the clean up of the site. However, there has been no completion date identified by the property owner for the demolition and remediation of the site,” said Anthony Haddad, director of development services, noting that the 30-day deadline given property owner Dennis Hildebrand would run out in the first week of June.
“If the property isn’t cleaned up by the property owner, the city will take the actions to clean up the property on behalf of the property owner and then bill the property owner for those costs,” said Haddad.