Crumbling marker walls will be replaced
Developer to start work in spring at Mount Carmel neighbourhood; spares homeowners the cost of maintenance
The crumbling brick walls that announce the Mount Carmel subdivision will be replaced — and homeowners won’t be stuck with the bill.
River Realty, developer of the approximately 25-year-old neighbourhood in north Niagara Falls, hopes to start in the spring using more durable material.
The work should be done by fall 2019 and will be limited to the walls, not the brick pillars that are part of the perimeter wooden fencing.
The company didn’t build or sell the homes — its role was limited to subdividing and servicing the lots before selling them to a builder — but president Stewart Branscombe said for him it’s personal.
“It’s my pride and joy subdivision,” said Branscombe, who still lives in Mount Carmel.
The issue was raised at city hall last month by Coun. Victor Pietrangelo, who also lives in Mount Carmel.
He said several subdivisions across the city were built with the signature brick walls on corner lots. In most cases the walls are actually on the homeowners’ private property.
Pietrangelo was concerned they would be stuck with the repair bill when the brickwork eventually deteriorates, as it has at Mount Carmel. That would be
unfair, he said, because as marker walls their appearance impacts the entire neighbourhood.
The most obvious case in
Mount Carmel involved a senior citizen who first used a cement patch, then later vinyl siding, to shore up the breaking brickwork.
“I think it’s a very classy move on his part,” Pietrangelo said Wednesday of Branscombe’s plan.
“It’s great as a solution to what’s happening now. I understand it’s not his responsibility directly, so it’s a very nice gesture.”
City staff are looking into potential solutions, including charging builders a fee that would be held in a city fund the municipality could later draw from when repairs are needed.
“It still would be nice to have a strategy for how we’re going to deal with these in the future,” said Pietrangelo. “I don’t think we can always rely on the developer coming back 30 years later to replace the walls.”
Mount Carmel includes about 450 homes and was built over four stages in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“Bricks, with weathering, only last so long,” said Branscombe, who declined to say how much it would cost to replace the dozen or so walls or demolish them if that’s what the homeowner wants.
“It’s lots,” he said, adding either way, the company will get written permission from the property owner before doing the work, he said.