Photo: City of Kelowna
Janusz Grelecki has six months to demolish his house at 424 Gibson Road or the city will do it for him.
The council upheld a decision it made two weeks ago, despite efforts by Grelecki and his neighbor Paul Davies to appeal the decision.
The council’s unanimous decision came after the city had spent more than a decade getting Grelecki to clean up his property and completely renovate his house, to no avail.
Bylaws officials claimed Grelecki had received five permits since 2010, none of which were ever complete.
In his defense, Grelecki apologized to the council and said he wanted to renovate the house and live there.
He said he was surprised to learn that the city is demanding that everything, including the house, be removed from the property.
He said the staff hadn’t been there for four years, “I thought everything was fine.”
Grelecki is almost 70 years old and grew up in Poland. Davies portrayed him as someone who distrusts the government and the media and “has little understanding of fair and good government”.
During a lengthy presentation, Davies claimed that the six-page report contained several errors, saying that the images used to initially convince the council were four years old and did not reflect the current state of the property.
He added that a report by independent engineers made a week ago said the house is safe and habitable.
The council denied the claim, saying that its opinion on the report highlighted problems with the quality of living in the home.
Sensing on his plight, the council agreed that Grelecki had more than enough time to do the work it took to comply with the city’s orders.
“We were more than fair. I’m happy to keep this decision going,” said Mayor Colin Basran.
Davies claimed Grelecki could have the property cleaned up within a year, as the city expected, but Coun. Mohini Singh said she did not trust the work given his track record.
If Grelecki does not finish the work in the allotted time, the city will do so and bill him for the work.
