The boarded buildings and vacant lots in Pleasant Hill are an important issue!
In response to a video that was released earlier this year, called THIS IS SASKATOON, that highlighted how perfect our city is, I created a video called THIS IS ALSO SASKATOON, to highlight the boarded buildings and vacant lots in Pleasant Hill.
Since this video was compiled, a fire happened at one of the boarded up homes on June 30th. According to CTV, “...Due to structural loss from the fire and the structure’s unstable condition, the fire’s cause could not be determined, the fire department said. It was brought down to the ground…” The property and the pile of debris is now fenced. As of July 10th, a demolition permit to remove the debris has not yet been requested.
According to the City, “The public Vacant Lot Inventory 2021 is regularly updated following the internal update of the property use information as part of the property assessment cycle.” Using the City’s Property Information Search, I have found demolition permits on most of the vacant properties, with one dating back to 1971!
The Pleasant Hill Community Association has presented to City Council many times. The most recent include:
CALLS TO ACTION IN PLEASANT HILL (Standing Policy Committee on Planning, Development and Community Services, August 12, 2019)
June 2019 – January 2020 Boarded Up Properties and Empty lots in Pleasant Hill (Standing Policy Committee on Planning, Development and Community Services, January 14, 2020)
There are also many reports and plans that have been generated by the City of Saskatoon regarding Pleasant Hill. They include:
Pleasant Hill Local Area Plan and Amendments (2002)
Pleasant Hill Safety Audit Final Report (2005)
Junction Improvement Strategy (2014)
Pleasant Hill Neighbourhood Traffic Review (2017)
Pleasant Hill Village and the most recent update (2018)
Pleasant Hill Neighbourhood Profile (2020)
After all of this, has the situation in Pleasant Hill improved?
During Cary’s mayoral campaign, he wrote about safety through development. We both believe that a line needs to be drawn in the sand. Starting now, Pleasant Hill has to become a priority and changes have to be made to encourage development. Setting a time limit for fixing up boarded buildings and taking the title to the property if they are not fixed up. Same idea for development of vacant land. As Cary stated during the election, “Infill development adds population. More people watching over things lowers the ability of criminals to operate. If the City put more effort into this area, disenfranchised people would feel pride. But too often, many view these neighborhoods as a dumping ground for anything and everything that the City wants to ignore.”
In January 2020, the Saskatoon Fire Department designated boarded buildings as a Priority 1 concern and also provided an update in September 2020. Has this helped improve the situation in Pleasant Hill? The only media coverage of a house being torn down has been located in Haultain (April 2021) or the luxury home in Briarwood that continues to hit the news with a possible demolition.
From the Pleasant Hill Community Association letter to Council in 2019 :
“The TRC’s Calls to Action and UNDRIP that constitutes standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of Indigenous Peoples are documents that have been well published around Saskatoon. Saskatoon prides it’s self on being engaged in Reconciliation and yet we are still living the deeply systemic issues that colonialism maintains in Pleasant Hill.”
At the civic election in November, Pleasant Hill’s polling station at the St. Mary’s Wellness and Education Centre only had 63 ballots cast out of 3,791 registered voters. Perhaps more people had voted at the advance polls. Either way, a low voter turnout can indicate apathy – that it doesn’t matter who is elected, nothing will change. We believe that it CAN change. The residents of Pleasant Hill deserve to live in a neighbourhood that is safe, where homes and properties are kept in proper condition. Contact the Mayor and your Councillor. Action is needed NOW in the Pleasant Hill neighbourhood.