Frizzi Road property owners are being ordered by the City of Williams Lake to remove all inventory, accumulated materials, stockpiles and debris away from edge of the river valley escarpment because of recent and future erosion and slope failure concerns.
The City’s remediation orders impact 11 properties and mean the owners will have until Nov. 27, 2020 to comply.
Owners of the impacted properties were invited to a special meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 10 at city hall to discuss the orders with council and staff.
“I understand that some of these properties have already adhered to these requirements from the geotechnical report so you may know you have already met some of these conditions,” said Mayor Walt Cobb at the beginning of the meeting.
Coun. Scott Nelson said the City is requesting the owners of 4005, 4007, 4009 and 4105 Frizzi Road to create a 25-metre set back.
For the properties at 4011, 4013, 4015, 4019, 4021, 4023 and 4029 Frizzi Road the set back will need to be at least 15 metres.
Read more: Williams Lake landslide ‘severely’ impacts three Frizzi Road properties
“We are trying to work very closely with the business owners and the property owners,” said Coun. Scott Nelson. “This is a crisis and I’m not going to mince words. Every time we get a geotech report they are having a heart attack because none of this stuff has been taken off there. That’s why we are having this special council meeting tonight to say we want to take some concrete steps to work with the property owners and companies.”
Randy Huston has owned the properties at 4019, 4015 and 4021 Frizzi Road for about 10 years and said water saturation is a big issue.
“If we going to fix anything here we need to take care of the water, it’s a simple as that. As long is it is going to be saturated, it is going to slide, that’s all there is to it,” Huston said.
Hasib Nadvi, director of planning and development, said the City could have a drainage ditches along Frizzi Road but the property owners will have to ensure the water runs off toward Frizzi Road and not toward the escarpment.
Coun. Marnie Brenner said she could sense the frustration the property owners are having.
“Let’s focus on getting those pieces of equipment moved back so we can remove that pressure,” she said.
Erick Peterson, the city’s fire chief and manager of the emergency operations centre, said registered letters will be delivered to the property owners on Thursday, Nov. 12.
Council agreed to meet again with the property owners in a couple of weeks.
Read more: Living on the edge: Williams Lake business owner impacted by recent river valley landslide
news@wltribune.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter