A homeowner near Grand Forks has only a few weeks to remove a private driveway crossing on the Trans Canada Trail – or the city will do it.
The family at 1725 Coalchute Road built the crossing to McCallum View Drive in order to avoid being a nuisance to neighbours with a long, dusty driveway to 18th Street.
According to the city, Grant Golding and Vanessa Reyes believed at the time that calling the “dial before you dig” process approved the access across city land.
The crossing is northeast of the intersection of McCallum View Drive and 17th Street.
City council agreed to the September 30th deadline on Monday (Aug. 12) at the insistence of Councillor Rod Zielinski.
“I want to make sure this is cleaned up before fall and winter and unfortunately the landowner we’re dealing with is not a city taxpayer so we’ll have to remove it at our cost,” Zielinski said.
After a presentation by Golding in March, the city has been looking at a way to legitimize the crossing.
But the staff report has been delayed by a backlog of a dozen other reports of higher priority, planning staff say.
“So it gives the person timeline today. If more information comes in with your report in September then we can deal with it but right now the person has a timeline to clean that up,” Zielinski added.
While there is another driveway immediately beside Golding’s driveway that crosses the Trans Canada Trail, it’s on a Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) right of way and not directly off the land owned by the city.
The motion for the deadline was approved unanimously.
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