Quebec City seeks power to expropriate abandoned buildings

Quebec City is seeking the power to expropriate dilapidated and abandoned buildings on its territory.

The call comes as people who live in the historic old city lose patience over the condition of 47Ste-GeneviveAvenue, anabandoned mansion that was once home tothe restaurantchezBahuaud, juststeps away the historicCitadelle.

Windows are boarded up. The lawn is overgrown with weeds.There is a splash of graffiti on one of the doors.

The head of theVieux-Qubeccitizens' committee, Jean Rousseau, saysit's a "scandal" that the historic building has been left to deteriorate for the past seven years.

Rousseau believes the property owner is simply waiting until the building becomes so decrepit, the city will be forced to allow its demolition, making way for new condominiums.

"Forty-sevenSte-Geneviveis symbolic of our municipal administration'slaissez-faireattitude," Rousseau said.

However, the Quebec Citycouncillorresponsible for culture and heritage, JulieLemieux, said the city can order the property owner to board up the building and to make emergency structural repairs, but itis powerless to force the property owner to renovate.

"It's an unacceptable situation,"Lemieuxsaid.

Awaiting 'special status'

It's not just the old mansion onSte-GeneviveAvenue.

Maison Pollack, next to the Plains of Abraham and the clubs and restaurants ofGrandeAlle's, built in 1909, sits empty,covered in scaffolding.

Aformer butcher shop, W.E.Bgin, onSt-Jean Street justoutside the walls of the old city, is covered in concert posters and graffiti.

Lemieuxsaid the city wants more power to intervene, "to force uninterested or inactive owners to take care of their residences, especially in the historic neighbourhood," she said.

Both Montreal and Quebec City are awaiting new legislation that will grant them special status, and with that, more powers overcity planning, transportation and environmental issues.

Lemieuxsaid officials for the two cities have been discussing seeking the power to expropriate buildings that have become eyesores.

"We are looking for ... the power to recuperate these buildings that are in a lamentable state and put them up for sale on the market, to sell them to a third partyinterested in renovating them,"Lemieuxsaid.

Modify existing law, municipal legal expert suggests

However, a lawyer who specializes in municipal law,FranoisMarchand, saidQuebec City already has powers it's not exercising.

City regulations already allowthe municipality toforce a property owner to take action if a building presents a health risk for instance, if it's vermin-infestedor presents some otherdanger to the public.

Marchandsaid it wouldn't be difficult to modify that regulation, to forcenegligent property owners to undertakemaintenance and repairs.

"The power already exists," in the provincial urban planning law, he said.

But Quebec City's mayor insists it will take special powers.

"We can do nothing," saidRgisLabeaume."If we could do something,we would have been doing it for decades."