A12 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 8, 1997

Taxation rate questions remain tops in Thornhill

THORNHILL residents still have plenty of questions and > concerns about amalgamating with Terrace, if attendance * at recent open house meetings is any indication.

About 35 people showed up to the open house, Sept. 30 at the Thornhill Community Hall. The group was almost! exclusively Thornhill residents.

Many wanted to ask questions of the restructure panel, consisting of two regional district staff members and Ter- : race’s economic devclopment officer. !

Regional district manager of works and services Andrew

Webber says thal the questions were similar to those asked

at the first restructure meeting.

“There were questions about representation and taxes,"* he says. '*And lots of clarification on different issues.’

The other regional district representative at the meeting, administrator Bob Marcellin, says the question people real- ly wanted to have answered was the most challenging.

“The majorily of the people were really asking, ‘Do we; really need a political restructuring?”’’ he says. “Along

Inspections a sore point

BUILD IT and they will come. Building inspectors, that is.

The subject of building in- spection in Thornhill is often mentioned as one of the reasons people are either

hundreds of kilograms of polatoes on top to prove they could carry a load. Ziegler admits there are plenty of dubious buildings built in Thombill, but be says the average builder is

sensible. ‘‘No one wants to build a house that col- lapses,” he says.

for or against amalgamation.

Bui regardless of the vote, it seems that inspectors will likely soon be sniffing through new homes and renovations on both sides of the river.

“Some people may not be aware that the province is making building inspection mandatory,’ says Terrace senior building | inspector Paul Gipps. “That is com- ing into law soon.”

Right now, Terrace re- quires inspection to make sure construction meets building codes. Thornhill does not.

Should Thornhill and Ter- trace become one com- taunity, building inspection would likely be extended to the newly incorporated areas,

Gipps says either way, in- spection will come sooner or later,

“There has to be a mini- mum standard,’’ he says. ‘There has to be a way to protect owners and future owners.”

Gipps points out that the average home here costs close to $150,000 — and it’s the largest investment in most people’s lives.

He says the inspection, which costs about $650, is money well spent.

‘You are spending $150,000. Say that a few times,’’ he says. ‘“That’s a lot of money, a lot of money. I can’t imagine why someone would want to live in a building that hasn’t been checked.”

Gipps also says that 95 per cent of the things inspectors look at are structural safety concerns, not insignificant details.

The code is the absolute- ly worst way to build a house and legally get away with it,” he says. ‘“This is a minimum standard, not some high ideal. We’re not talking about gold-plated faucets.”

Many contractors agree with Gipps, saying that pub- lic safely is al stake.

**That’s easy for me,” says David McKeown of Progressive Ventures. ‘I think it should be mandatory everywhere.”’

But not everyone is 4s enthusiastic. Some builders and homeowners see inspec- tion as an expensive, bureaucratic waste of time.

“T'm against It,’ says Tony Ziegler, who has built many houses on the Thorn- hill bench. ‘‘It costs more money, and who knows? Maybe the inspector doesn’t like you for some reason.’”

Ziegler says he cati re- member one time when he built a house that was in- spected. The inspector didn't like the home-made trusses, So Ziegler set some

with that there were questious about services near and dear to our hearts — like roads and water.’

Marcellin says those types of questions were often very specific and detailed, some of which the panel couldn’t

answer because they dealt with operational issues that » , would be up to the new council to explore. ,

Webber says there still seemed to be a over-riding mis- conception by many residents that the standards and ser- vices provided by Terrace would immediately be trans- ferred to Thornhill. _

That belief bas caused some residents to worry that their - lifestyles would have to change as the city imposed regula-

tions like larger lot sizes on Thornhill.

But Webber says that’s not the case,

“In my opinion it is by no means automatic that sudden- ly the city’s way of doing things would be brought to the whole area,”” he says,

Marcellin echoes that opinion, but points out that the cur-

rent way of life in Thornhill could- very well change regardless of the way the vote goes.

“They're fooling themselves if they think the status quo will stay the same as it is today,’’ he says. ‘‘It will definitely evolve and change.”’

Webber also points out that many issues that will affect the Thornhill lifestyle are determined by the province and the regional district, and those could change.

“The irony is that amalgamation may actually provide more certainty by taking control over the land base,’”” he Says. wk. ; ‘ " ‘

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