Windsor city councillor Joanne Gignac anticipates a lively discussion over whether to expand the city's blight mitigation strategy to cover vacant commercial, industrial and institutional properties.
Windsor's strategy dates back to 2011 when the council adopted a plan to clean up residential properties. At the time, the administration argued it was not cost effective to include vacant buildings like schools and factories. Over the past six years, 43 residential buildings have been torn down.
In February, she asked the administration to come back with a report whether it was time to take another look at the issue.
"We've been challenged over the years with some properties that are, all say interesting," says Gignac. "Until they become an unsafe issue, the current bylaw pretty much limits what the city can do, so we have to take a real hard look at it and make a decision on how we want our city to look."
After reviewing how other cities handle it, the administration continues to recommend leaving out all but residential properties.
If the buildings become unsafe, the city has to issue a notice to the property owner, and Gignac says requests for mitigation have ended up in the courts delaying efforts to beautify land that could attract new developers.
