DRUG SETUPS EMPTY 13 OF 28 HOUSING UNITS

Inspector Wants Prospective Buyers Of Townhouse Units Warned About
Potential Risks

VANCOUVER - The City of Vancouver is trying to clean up a townhouse
complex in East Vancouver where nearly half the units were used as
marijuana growing operations.

Warnings stating "Not safe to occupy" have been posted on 13 of 28
doors at the strata unit near Kingsway and Joyce.

"We've never had a strata building with this many marijuana grow-ops
in it," said city building inspector Carlene Robbins.

She said police raided the four-storey building at the corner of
Senlac and Wessex in September and took away 3,700 marijuana plants.

The police and city inspectors closed all the units and disconnected
the power and gas.

Robbins has recommended in a report going to a Vancouver council
committee next week that the city file a notice against the title to
the properties used for the marijuana operations.

The notice would warn prospective buyers that the units were used as
marijuana growing operations and that there could be potential mould
contamination and other damage. The same notice would be applied to a
14th unit used as a clandestine ecstasy lab.

So far none of the owners have responded to the city's actions.

"The only response I got was from one innocent owner of one of the
other units who is very upset. She has children and feels quite
victimized. She said she can't afford to move."

Robbins said that many of the growing operation units were owned by
the same people and that she has been unable to determine whether the
owners actually lived in the complex. One person owned at least four
of the strata units -- two of which were used for growing operations
and a third for making ecstasy.

"The police told me that the units didn't appear to be occupied,"
said Robbins. "They were simply used as grow-ops."

Chris Taulu, coordinator of the nearby Collingwood Community Policing
Centre, said the 13 growing operations are a disaster for the owners
of the other units.

"If you want to move out of there, is someone going to want to buy it?

"If you were a buyer, would you buy a unit in there?"

Taulu said that growing operations always damage the building where
they are located.

"The water, the seepage, the mould. Can you imagine living in there
and being in one of the other apartments and trying to sell them."

Robbins said the growing operation owners are going to have to hire
an environmental inspector to assess the mould contamination and
cover the cost of bringing their units back up to code.

She said the owners have already been fined $1,700 for the cost of
the police bust.

"If the owners don't respond to us and have the problems corrected,
we'll have to talk to our legal department," she added.