Letter from Doug Wilson regarding 315 Stewart Ave

re: 315 View Royal Ave

During the March 4, 2025 View Royal council meeting the Building Inspector provided an overview of a staff report about issues with a construction project that have resulted in a Community Charter section 57 notice filed against the land title.

The minutes of the March 4 council meeting note that Council and the Building inspector discussed “(the) need to mitigate risk for the Town, broader public safety and risk; applying due process on a consistent basis”

The Building Inspectors presentation to council on March 4th stated: “The Town is obligated to enforce compliance with Town Bylaws and uphold public safety and building standards in accordance with the BCBC.” This is a very important statement because it is part of the foundation of the Town’s argument that could lead to the demolition of a building. If the Town is obliged to enforce the bylaws in this case it is also obliged to enforce the bylaw in other cases.

The March 4th minutes also note that “The Director of Development Services discussed deficiencies noted by the Town’s previous building inspector, confirming that the framing inspection had not been passed.”

I think everyone would agree that mitigation of exposure to risk is a critical function of Council, the building inspector, Town staff and the Building Bylaw. As noted above, the Town is obliged to uphold Town Bylaws but when Bylaws are not upheld or not enforced consistently the obligation to mitigate risk is not met and the Town is left exposed.

I found the Town staff claims of obligation to enforce bylaws and the need for consistency and risk mitigation interesting because the claims did not seem to be met in the case of a construction project across the street from my home. So, on March 6, 2025 I made an FOI request for Town of View Royal records related to the construction of a dwelling at 315 Stewart Ave for the period of March 6, 2021 to March 6, 2025.

The records I requested included:

• Building Permits;
• Building Permit history;
• Building inspection reports;
• Occupancy Permits;
• Bylaw Enforcement/Complaints.

The responsive documents included all of the building inspection reports and the building inspection Summary Report that were available in the Town of View Royal CityReporter repository of the building inspection files.

Because I have these responsive records, I was shocked to read the Director of Development’s report titled Building Permit Updates for 315 and 331 Stewart Ave on the September 16, 2025 Council meeting agenda. The glaring omission of critical information is jarring.

The report includes a “Town Inspection Timeline” that lists the date and type of ten building inspections. This list is very similar to the building inspection Summary Report that the CityReporter software produced for my FOI request except the most important information, the result of each building inspection is omitted in the Director’s report.

In the records I received the CityReporter building inspection software identified two possible results of a building inspection, the pass/fail is identified as Accepted or Items Rejected.

Here is the inspection timeline provided in the September 16th Agenda:

• 2021-11-04 – Footing
• 2021-11-16 – Footing
• 2021-11-23 – Foundation
• 2021-11-25 – Foundation
• 2022-01-12 - Insulation
• 2022-06-17– Framing
• 2022-09-20– Sheathing / Rain Screen
• 2022-10-24– Insulation
• 2022-10-25– Insulation
• 2023-03-31– Final

Here is the CityReporter building inspection Summary Report as of March 25, 2025:

I believe that Council must ask why it is important to list a timeline of building inspections without indicating that the View Royal CityReporter records show that 9 of the inspections on the Inspection Timeline list were not Accepted (did not pass the inspection) and that the CityReporter Summary Report does not show any record at all of a final inspection taking place on March 31 2023. To be clear, every single building inspection that the Town had a record of and supplied in response to my FOI request had Items Rejected and that, to paraphrase the March 4, 2025 Council minutes, confirms that the inspection did not pass.

The responsive documents from my FOI request only included building inspection reports for 6 of the inspections listed in the Summary Report. The CityReporter Summary identifies 3 additional building inspections so, assuming that the FOI request was fulfilled in accordance with FOIPA, it seems like the Town does not even have any record of 3 building inspections other than the Summary Report notation of Items Rejected.

If these issues have been resolved in the time since my March 6, 2025 FOI request, I’m happy for the builder and hope that they can conclude the project in short order. However, actions taken by the Town prior to March 6, 2025 would seem to rely on these records of failed building inspections and that creates some real challenges for the aforementioned obligation “to enforce compliance with Town Bylaws and uphold public safety and building standards” and “applying due process on a consistent basis”.

I mentioned earlier that the CityReporter building inspection Summary Report contained 9 records of building inspections but that, as of March 6, 2025, there was no record of a final inspection in the records. I do not know exactly how CityReporter works but I feel safe in commenting that a reasonable person would wonder why the records only contain failed inspections and that the Town does not seem to have any record of a Final Inspection taking place on March 31, 2023 until a Memo responding to Bylaw Complaint 2024-363 was produced on July 30th, 2024, 16 months after the inspection date.

To be clear, on July 26th, 2024 Bylaw Complaint 2024-363 expressed concerns that the building under construction at 315 Stewart Ave had been occupied for two years without an Occupation Permit. The Memo written on July 31, 2024 by the View Royal Building Official does not refute that assertion. The Memo states that a Final Inspection was booked for March 31, 2023 but does not state that it was completed. The Town of View Royal was unable to produce an inspection report for that date in response to my FOI request.

The Memo, shown below, is at best confusing. It does state that a final Occupancy Permit was not granted on March 31, 2023 but omits to mention that no Occupancy Permit whatsoever was granted at that time. The Memo notes that the Occupancy Permit was not granted as not all work had been completed but there is no actual record of what deficiencies, noted in the previous building inspections that all contained “items rejected”, remain unresolved. The Memo states that “All deficiencies were noted and discussed” but I am left wondering why anything that was “noted and discussed” in a final building inspection does not seem to be recorded in any document the Town was able to produce two years after the inspections date.

The memo states that “of note, access from the basement sliding door was not complete as it involved retaining was (this work under BP 2741). The widow wells also had not been formed and poured. Currently these areas are sealed up and made safe from the weather.” The October 24, 2022 inspection identified a bedroom and bathroom in the basement. Any inspection that took place on March 31, 2023 would have had a challenging time identifying that work conducted under Building Permit 2741 was incomplete because that building permit was not even issued until November 24, 2023, eight months after the March 31, 2023 inspection described in the Memo. I mention the basement bedroom and the identified absence of egress points from the basement because the third paragraph in the Memo states:

“During the inspection, it was noted that there were no life safety concerns preventing the owners from occupying the house during the remainder of construction as long as the conditions listed on the Conditional Occupancy were observed.”

How is it possible that the March 31, 2023 building inspection “noted” (which implies documentation) that there were no safety concerns if the conditions listed on the Conditional Occupancy were observed? The Conditional Occupancy permit did not exist until 16 months after the inspection. The Conditional Occupancy permit that is dated July 30, 2024 and states that it is based on an inspection that took place on March 31, 2023, an inspection that, according to the Memo, identified that on March 31, 2023, an Occupancy Permit was not granted because there was no access from the basement door or windows.

A resident complained to the town that a building under construction had been occupied for a considerable time without an Occupation Permit. Despite every record of building inspections indicating that there are “Items Rejected” a Conditional Occupancy Permit was granted five days after the complaint based on a Memo that is rife with internal contradictions and based on an inspection that was not previously recorded in the standard repository the Town uses for building inspection records.

I write today because the process followed by the Town is so confusing, the documentation is so challenging and the apparent failure to adhere to the stated obligation “to enforce compliance with Town Bylaws and uphold public safety and building standards in accordance with the BCBC” is so striking that it would cause a loss of public faith in the processes followed by the Town of View Royal.

Occupancy of a dwelling under construction without an Occupancy Permit is prohibited in View Royal but compliance was never enforced. As of August 11, 2025 the Conditional Occupancy Permit expired when Building Permit 2607 expired; condition #1 is that “All permits remain active and in good standing”.

The neighbours of the construction site at 315 Stewart Ave deserve the protections offered in the Town Bylaws. In the meeting tonight the council is being asked to accept a report from the Director of Development that glosses over facts that are pertinent to the situation and ignores the complaints expressed to council by neighbours on September 2, 2025. I believe the Council should reject the report.

The neighbours simply want the construction at 315 Stewart Ave to be completed. For the eyesore in the front of that building to be cleaned up. To feel that the fire risk to other buildings caused by piles of garbage and building materials will be cleaned up. They worry that a building occupied without and Occupancy Permit may not have insurance that would cover harms to adjacent properties.

Yours,

Doug Wilson

Attached: July 26th, 2024 Complaint 2024-363 July 30th 2024 Memo from the Building Official re: Bylaw Complaint No. 2024-363 July 30th 2024 Final Inspection Notice and Conditional Occupancy