The single detached dwelling at 6569 Lakeside Road has been undergoing construction for the past twenty-five years with the owner residing in the basement without an occupancy permit issued from the Town of Oliver. The owner of the property is Fred Babuik.

The property contains a number of problems, specifically:

• There are several excavations and exposed footings for a garage, retaining wall and
window well. These holes are three to five feet deep and unfenced.
• There is no suitable external access for the house and a four to six-foot drop to the
upstairs entrances at the front, south side and rear of the dwelling.
• There are loose piles of dirt, which pose both a visual nuisance, and a hazard with
the potential for children to be injured on it.
• There are unstable and disorganized piles of construction materials on the property.
• The house and the shed both lack siding. The exterior of the House is exposed house
wrap.

Town staff is concerned that the above conditions create unsafe conditions or constitute a nuisance. For years the Property has been essentially an unfenced construction site.

Permits for construction of both the dwelling and garage have expired, with no permit issued for the shed. Reports completed by the Building Official in November of 2001, June of 2019 and February of 2020 are included as Attachments 3 to 5, providing a background on the ongoing history of the subject property and permits issued to date.

Several letters have been sent to the property owner to try and remedy the unfinished condition of the property. The building official has worked extensively with the property owner over the past two decades trying to complete the permits, with no success. On March 2, 2018, an extension was issued for house permit, which expired on October 7, 2018 (BP 2018-10). On December 31, 2018, a six-month extension was issued for the garage permit, which expired on June 30, 2019. No tickets have been issued to the property owner, given the likelihood that they would end up in collection. Staff is recommending that Council impose a Remedial Action Requirement (RAR) to deal with the current state of the property in order to make it safer and mitigate nuisance conditions. This would give the owner a timeline to get the works complete, and enable the Town or the Town’s contractors to complete the works and add the costs to the property owner’s taxes.

The Town’s Fire Chief has provided comments regarding the dwelling, stating that he “toured the residence at 6569 Lakeside Drive earlier in 2019 and found that this residence is under construction and residents are living in the basement portion that is also incomplete. There appears to be only one stairway out of the basement and this is also not complete. There was a
window in the basement but this was boarded on the inside and had a lot of construction material stacked across the opening outside, the resident said he would open this window. The overall condition of the residence, the amount of construction material and lack of easy access and egress is a serious concern to safety.” Staff has confirmed that the boarded up window has been removed, but note that the lack of emergency egress remains a concern.

Town staff says that many of the hazardous and nuisance conditions can be addressed by the owner constructing proper steps, landings and guardrails to access the building’s entry and exits, completing some of the concrete form work, smoothing the terrain, organizing the piles of construction materials and putting siding on the house.

Staff anticipates that all of the works can be completed within three months with the hiring of
contactors. Each of the required items have been broken down individually and costs have been
estimated, with the total value of $50,000.

The issue discussed by council recently and this is the first concrete report on what can and should be done to remedy the situation.