By Geoff Smith (@smithco on Twitter)

Village forced to demolish new house

Dec 2, 2016 | 11:12 AM

CARMANGAY – A frustrated mayor says the village had no choice but to proceed with the demolition of a brand new home.

Kym Nichols says not only did the house not comply with the land use bylaws, it didn’t have the right permits, it violated the property setbacks — and it was built over a gas line.

“The property owner refused to take out the proper permits, and he had a blatant disregard for the land use bylaw and the Alberta building code,” Nichols said, adding she’d never had to deal with anything like this case in her ten years on council.

“We tried so hard to work with him, and bylaw, and our planner, and the RCMP, and nobody wanted to see this happen,” she said. “At the end of the day, what do you do?”

She says the village had exhausted its own options before going to court to force the property owner to comply, but to no avail.

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“To pour concrete over the gas line, you just can’t do stuff like that.”

Nichols says the cost of demolition will be applied to the property. The property owner who built the home is not a resident of the community, according to the mayor.

“It’s the worst case scenario. This is something we tried to avoid at all cost, but at the end of the day we’re bound to follow the rules.”