A group of Oliver residents are fed up with the snail’s pace progress of a home under construction on Lakeside Drive.

Arbour Lane resident Ken Hagen addressed council recently about the delay in a neighbour completing a home at 6569 Lakeside Drive.

“As long as any of us can remember, there’s been a continuous construction site there. It makes progress, but nothing ever, ever, ever, ever gets finished.”

Hagen said the home is clad only in house wrap and surrounded by excavations. He added there are piles of rubble, rubbish and derelict cars, too.

Hagen said there is no way to access the house as there are no stairs, which would prove difficult for emergency responders.

He also questioned if the owner has permits.

“We wonder why he’s being allowed to start new phases of the project when he hasn’t completed the last one.”

Hagen said he hasn’t seen any positive progress in construction in the last five years.

He pointed out that formal meetings with senior Town staff have not changed anything.

He said the Town has adequate tools to address the problem, and asked why it is not taking action on unsightly properties when the regional district is taking action in rural Oliver.

Chief Administrative Officer Cathy Cowan said this issue has been going on for a while (since 1996) and the Town has been in contact with the owner on a number of occasions.

“It is an open file and we are pressing to get things under control at that particular site.”

Cowan said the property owner does have an active building permit, noting an extension was issued in March of 2018, so he has two years from that date to “close that file off,” or he can ask for another extension.

Cowan said the Town is looking at revamping its bylaw so that a building permit can only be renewed a certain number of times (to lessen the impact on the neighbourhood).

Mayor Martin Johansen asked if there is anything under the “nuisance” bylaw to get this property cleaned up.

Cowan said they have talked to the owner and he has cleaned some of it up. She noted there was concern raised about the exposed rebar on site.

Councillor Larry Schwartzenberger asked if the owner has ever been issued an occupancy permit.

Cowan said no.

“But he’s in there, so how do you deal with that?” the councillor asked. He then queried whether the construction material is an affront to the Town’s Good Neighbour Bylaw.

Cowan said the property has to be well maintained and the construction material must be stacked, with no garbage piling up.

“I moved here 27 years ago and I remember that being just a basement,” Schwartzenberger said. “I think its obvious that rolling over the building permit every two years is probably not the best thing.”

Fellow Councillor Dave Mattes also expressed concern with the property, wondering how the owner is able to occupy the premises without an occupancy permit.

Mattes asked staff to work with the building inspector to find out what the contravention is and what legal action can be taken.

Mattes requested that staff consult legal counsel to find out what the Town can do to strengthen the bylaw to prevent this from happening again.

The councillor said there is an unspoken trust that a home-building project is finished within two years of the permit being issued, with an extension if necessary. But he said there is nothing the Town can do to force anyone to build once they get a permit.