Settling the dust
Charlottetown resident wants industrial lot cleaned up
Vaughan Davies is kicking up some dust over his neighbour in Charlottetown.
Davies clearly puts a premium on tidiness.
His property on Esher Street is meticulously manicured.
The two-storey home he has lived in since 2005 is also impeccably well kept.
So when the dust flies from a neighbouring property – a regular occurrence, he says – Davies is left wiping dust off windowsills and his picnic table.
“It just affects your quality of life and the cleanliness of your property,’’ he notes.
“I like a nice looking property.’’
He also finds the property, which is zoned industrial, to be at times an eyesore.
He calls the lot, located at the corner of Longworth Avenue and Esher Street, an open pit dump.
Pieces of steel railing, asphalt, papers — “just garbage of every sort that you can imagine’’ — gets piled on the lot, he says.
Charlottetown Coun. Terry MacLeod says Davies has a legitimate gripe.
“He does have a point,’’ says MacLeod.
“Any time a resident takes care of their property, that is something the council encourages. Unfortunately, Mr. Davies is living next to a property that is zoned industrial.’’
MacLeod says the property owners — Kevin Murphy and Mike Cassidy — are not breaking any bylaws. However, the councillor says he is working with them to keep the lot clean.
“It’s a pretty general purpose piece of property,’’ says MacLeod, noting it is used for storing buses, pallets and trailers among other items. “We’re on them.’’ Shane Arsenault, who is in charge of maintenance for Murphy Hospitality Group, concedes work needs to be done.
“We have to do a massive cleanup now,’’ he says.
“There’s stuff along the fence that we have to clean up.’’
However, Arsenault is not sure what can be done to stop the dust from flying.
“It’s just an industrial lot,’’ he says.
Davies has never taken his complaints directly to the property owners.
MacLeod suggests it might be worthwhile to sit the two sides down together in an attempt to reach a satisfactory solution.
“I know the Murphys (and Cassidy) are interested in being good neighbours,’’ he says.