Tori Sutton
STAFF REPORTER

Council will be receiving more information on how to deal with abandoned gas station properties in the city.

At a recent planning and heritage subcommittee meeting, building and planning staff were directed to prepare a report on zoning and brownfield matters related to abandoned gas station properties and investigate whether provincial assistance was available to deal with these properties.

Background information indicates that over the last year, several orders have been issued against former gas station properties, for issues such as long grass, garbage and unsafe fencing. In most of the cases, the requested work was completed almost immediately.

The most recent letter was sent to the owners of the former Petro Canada station at 699 Ontario St. on April 22, requesting the clean-up, repair or replacement of several things on the property, including the chain-link fence, brush, broken tree branches and dead or decaying trees.

There had also been a recent telephone conversation between the city and a representative for the property’s owner, where suggestions were made that the site be landscaped with some gardens or flowers. There has been no response.

Though letters have been sent to the owners of nearly every property in the city, Coun. Paul Nickel said there hasn’t been enough pressure put on the owners of the derelict lots.

Under new business at Monday night’s meeting, Nickel suggested signs be erected in front of the lots to inform the public that oil companies won’t clean up the properties.

“I don’t think we’ve gone far enough,” said Nickel, who has voiced concerns about the properties several times.

He noted oil companies have been pulling in substantial profits and suggested maintenance of the properties would show good corporate citizenship. Shaming them into cleaning up the sites might lead to results, he said.

Coun. Karen Smythe said the oil companies should be forced to do full environmental clean-ups on the sites.

“I feel we need to press harder to have them clean up the whole brownfields,” she said. “Something has to be done.”

However, Coun. Don Chapman pointed out the city cannot force a full clean-up of such sites, pointing to the Cooper site as an example.

Coun. Frank Mark said one property that particularly bothers Nickel – the abandoned lot at the corner of Queen and Ontario streets – was no longer owned by an oil company, but rather by an individual from Hamilton.

Responding to a question from Coun. Dave Gaffney, Barbara Dembek, director of building and planning, said the city’s property standards bylaw can force clean-up of a property if there is garbage or long grass, but it doesn’t deal with other esthetic issues.