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Campbell River property owners given 30 days to cut back hedges

Five Campbell River properties slapped with remedial action orders
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City of Campbell River/Special to the Mirror The owner of property at the corner of Hilchey and Alder has been given 30 days to cut back this hedge or else the city will do it at the owner’s expense.

Three property owners have been ordered by council to trim potentially dangerous shrubs in their yards within 30 days or else the city will do it at the home owners’ expense.

The remedial action orders apply to two homes on Hilchey Road – both on the corner of Hilchey and Alder – while the third deals with property on the corner of Elm Street and 9th Avenue.

For one of the Hilchey properties, this is not the first time the owner has been slapped with a remedial action notice, and for the exact same reason. The hedge, located on the corner of the home has been deemed a traffic safety hazard as the city’s bylaw officer says it blocks the view of motorists approaching the intersection.

“The corner of the hedge encroaches into the required clearance zone and the boulevard, limiting visibility for traffic turning right from Hilchey Street into Alder Street south,” said City Bylaw Officer Karl Read in a report to council. “This same hedge was the subject of a remedial action in 2013. In that instance, the owner did not comply with the remedial action requirement and the city performed the work at the expense of the owner.”

The second Hilchey property under fire is also located on the corner of Hilchey and Alder. Read said the problem with that hedge is that it “encroaches into the sidewalk, causing an inconvenience to pedestrians.”

Read said both homeowners were sent letters from the city in early April and to date, neither has performed the required work of cutting back the hedges.

The city has had the same issue with a property owner on the corner of Elm and 9th. A hedge on that property is encroaching into the boulevard and limiting visibility for traffic turning left at the intersection from Elm Street, according to Read.

The City of Campbell River has been using the remedial action tool since October of 2012 and in most cases it has proven to be effective – several property owners who have received the remedial action notices have cleaned up their properties to avoid being billed by the city which will add any unpaid bills to a property owner’s tax bill.

The orders are used for not only overgrown vegetation but also unsightly premises. At Tuesday’s council meeting, council used the remedial action notice for two properties which have been ordered to clean up their property, and as of Tuesday’s meeting, had failed to do so.

The first, on Nunns Road, is an order to remove “significant amounts of garbage accumulated about the property, including a large pile in the open ended garage,” said Read.

The second applies to a home on 8th Avenue which has also caught the eye of bylaw officers for “significant amounts” of garbage. Read said that similar to the Hilchey home, this property has also been hit with a remedial action notice in the past.

“It should be noted that this property was the subject of a remedial action clean up last year in which a large quantity of discarded materials were removed from the property by contractors engaged by the city after the owner failed to implement the remedial action requirements,” Read said.