City wants clean-up bond for abandoned construction sites

Calgary's chief building inspector wants developers to pay a clean-up bond so the city isn't stuck with dangerous abandoned condo and office tower projects.

As the city's once red-hot economy slows, abandoned construction sites are becoming a real concern for chief inspector Kevin Griffiths.

"We are currently sitting with nine sites that we have [clean-up] orders on. We have approximately two dozen sites that are of interest to us," he said.

Crews have to fill in the massive hole dug into the ground and fence it off to keep it safe, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The city can eventually get the money back through a property tax lien, but that's a long and complicated process.

Most of the stalled projects are in Ald. John Mar's inner-city ward and he wants assurance the sites will be cleaned up.

"These holes are in some cases 70 feet deep. So we are concerned about it," said Mar.

No one wants unsightly holes in the ground

Griffiths is urging council to change building laws, giving struggling developers up to a year to resume work, but at the same time also forcing them to put up a bond to cover the costs of remediation in the event the city has to take on the costs of cleaning up.

"We would hold that money until such time as they were … above grade and that is to ensure that the citizens of Calgary are not going to pay for this remediation," he said.

The construction industry agrees to the concept, but Griffiths said details will have to be worked out before anything is put in place.

Michael Flynn, a spokesman for the Urban Development Institute, which represents most of the city's builders, said developers are already facing enough incentives and penalties.

"No one wants to have their name attached to an ugly, unsightly hole in the ground for that very reason they already have an incentive to at least bring the project up to grade," he said.