WHEREAS run-down and poorly maintained buildings, vacant or occupied, have a negative impact on area residents and businesses, which results in decreased property values and discourages investment in the municipality, and affects local government property tax revenues; AND WHEREAS the municipal authority under the Community Charter is limited as follows: - section 831 applies to building only for the purposes of health, safety and protection of persons and property; and - section 64k is limited to graffiti and unsightly conditions: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that UBCM lobby the provincial government to amend the Community Charter to grant local government authority to set higher property tax rates for derelict and vacant buildings as a deterrent for property owners to allow their premises to become unsightly.
Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Municipalities have broad authority under the Community Charter to regulate, prohibit and impose requirements in relation to a range of matters. Section 83l provides the fundamental power to create bylaws for the protection and enhancement of the well-being of the community in relation to various nuisances, disturbances and objectionable situations described in section 64. Based on the authority to deal with nuisances and related issues, many municipalities have enacted unsightly premises bylaws andor property maintenance bylaws to address conditions that negatively impact community enjoyment and neighbourhood property values. Provisions that establish objective indicators to clarify the meaning of unsightly are often included in such bylaws, helping target undesirable aesthetic conditions of properties beyond matters like graffiti. Under section 74 of the Community Charter, a council can also declare a building or structure, or a thing so dilapidated or unclean that it offends the community, to be a nuisance and impose remedial action requirements. Additionally, local governments can use tools such as the revitalization tax exemption provisions found in section 226 of the Community Charter, to encourage development and improved maintenance of run down or poorly maintained buildings.