The City of Windsor is making strides to crackdown on blight and address property standards within the downtown core.
Since June, a dedicated bylaw property standards enforcement officer has been conducting proactive enforcement on some of the building bylaw standards in key areas of the core, as opposed to just responding to complaint-driven issues.
The focus is on an area bounded by Riverside Drive to Erie Street and Glengarry Avenue and Victoria Avenue.
Deputy Chief Building Official Rob Vani says they've already covered two-thirds of the defined area at a very high level since the process started.
"We tried to identify all of the most egregious buildings that we have in that area," he says. "We're concentrating on those particular buildings as a priority enforcement exercise. We'll circle back to all the other less-priority type violations."
Vani says they've already issued orders to 12 separate property owners.
"Out of those 12 orders, we've already moved to the step of sending final warning letters to a couple of those property owners for not complying with those particular orders. We've already had success; a couple of property owners have already brought their properties into compliance," he says.
Vani says they've also issued around a dozen deficiency notices to property owners, but they're working with them to get voluntary compliance to avoid issuing a formal order.
Most of the orders and notices have been for exterior facade issues, including broken or missing windows, boarded up windows that haven't been repaired, brick or damaged stone work, and exterior stucco that has been damaged or hasn't been maintained.
Vani says he expects more orders will be coming as they finish their review of the balance of the area.
"As we start to deal with the most egregious properties, we'll start to concentrate on the more low-lying, hanging fruit on some of these other properties that are not in as dire need of repairs but none the less don't comply with our property standards bylaw," he says.
As part of this proactive enforcement process, the city is also trying to provide education by informing property owners about city programs and grants, including the Community Improvement Program, to see if that could help fix, improve, repurpose, or transform a given site.
According to the city, if a building or property is deemed to be non-compliant with city by-laws, owners will be given a reasonable timeline to bring their property into compliance.
In cases where an order to repair must be issued, owners will have 30 days to comply, and efforts will be closely monitored, with escalation to the Provincial Offences Court if necessary to enforce any orders.