547 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

Ashley MacDonald has been waiting a year for answers about why she and other residents of a Langford high-rise had to move out with little notice after the building’s occupancy permit was revoked.

 

MacDonald was one of an estimated 130 residents of the 11-storey RidgeView Place, formerly called Danbrook One, who were forced out of their homes on April 24, 2023, when the city pulled the occupancy permit over structural concerns.

 

The city and owner Centurion Property Associates Inc. did not reveal any details about concerns with the building, which had been completed in January 2019 and received an occupancy permit the following month. Centurion agreed to buy the building on April 25, 2019.

 

It was the second time in four years the city had pulled the occupancy permit for the Claude Road structure and residents were urged to leave the building immediately because of investigations by the Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. into structural flaws.

 

In December 2019, residents were told the engineering association had opened an investigation when an engineer who was not involved in the project raised concerns about the design.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...gh-rise-8643879

 

 

 

MacDonald said she hasn’t received any information from Centurion or the city since about a week after she moved out. She wants to know what was wrong with the building and what has been done to ensure this situation is not repeated for a third time.

 

“We want the answers, and more than that, I think we deserve the answers,” she said.

 

MacDonald filed a complaint with the Residential Tenancy Branch to recoup about $4,000 in costs incurred from moving and staying in hotels after losing her home. She found out in January her complaint was unsuccessful.

 

Centurion offered $2,500 in assistance to each unit after emptying the building.

 

In addition to the lost money, the incident has shaken her sense of safety, MacDonald said. Recently, she noticed a tiny crack in the drywall in her new apartment, which sparked fears that her new home could be unsafe.

 

“That’s part of why it’s so disheartening that we haven’t had an answer,” MacDonald said. “It has taken a toll on my emotional state.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe she needs to move past this?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 April 2024 - 04:47 AM.

[aastra]

 

Maybe she needs to move past this?

 

Exactly. As the years pass and pile up into decades we just need to accept the incontrovertible fact that the building was incredibly unsafe. Ideally it would be preserved and maintained as an eternal monument to unsafe construction.

[Victoria Watcher]

Shore it up then do so, yes. Maybe an interpretive plaque can be installed.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 April 2024 - 11:29 AM.

[aastra]

 

Maybe an interpretive plaque can be installed.

 

Better to err on the safe side and install two plaques, for structural redundancy.

[LJ]

If it is just not up to current seismic requirements, just have the residents sign a waiver to that effect. A whole bunch of older buildings don't meet today's code either.

 

If it is something more than that - tear it down.

[Blair M.]

If you go back a few pages in this thread, AllJetNoPilot posted detailed links to the specifics of all that's wrong with the building. 

In a nutshell, the various professional reports indicate that there are so many separate things wrong with the building, it would seem either a partial or complete tear-down will be the eventual outcome, despite such a radical end-game likely being many years down the road due to the assorted financial and liability entanglements identified to date.

[spanky123]

^ Agreed. If it could have been fixed it would have been by now.

 

If it wasn't for the potential for the Langford taxpayer to be on the hook I would just write this off as a dispute between two commercial parties that is going to likely take years to resolve.

[aastra]

 

Maybe she needs to move past this?

 

Consider all of the people everywhere who have lived in houses or buildings for some duration, and then moved out, and then learned that the house or building suffered a serious fire at some later date.

Consider all of the people everywhere who have driven in a car or bus or flown in a plane that suffered a serious accident at some later date.

Consider all of the people everywhere who have used a bridge that suffered a serious issue at some later date.

Consider all of the people everywhere who have patronized a store or business that suffered a violent robbery or had a car drive through the front window at some later date when they themselves were not present.

Hundreds of millions of people all over the world. Consider all of the people everywhere who have walked under a tree that fell down at some later date.

 

If the unfortunate incident happened shortly after your exit then sure, you would probably spend some time pondering it.

But if the incident happened years later? Are we expecting a large portion of the world's population to be feeling traumatized all the time?*

In the case of Danbrook One, even if disaster were to happen tomorrow the residents were still clear of it by a full year.

 

*spoiler alert... ah, forget it.