LAWN SIGNS IDENTIFY EX-GROW HOUSES

A warning for home buyers

Councillor calls it an 'epidemic'

Toronto Councillor Michael Del Grande has 28 former marijuana grow houses
in his Scarborough ward and he wants everyone to know.

He has started a campaign in his Scarborough-Agincourt Ward 39 to point out
to prospective renters and buyers which houses were used to grow pot and
are likely riddled with mould and structural defects.

On Friday, he got the city's municipal licensing and standards department
to put work order signs on the lawns of two former grow houses that have
been raided and shut down by Toronto police. The signs duplicate actual
city work orders for environmental and structural repairs.

"These places are an epidemic," Del Grande said last night.

Del Grande has begun his campaign by targeting two houses: on Eagle Point
Rd., in the Warden Ave. and McNicoll Ave. area, and Chapeltown Cres., near
Pharmacy Ave. and McNicholl. Both were empty last night and the signs gone
from the lawns.

At Chapeltown Cres., the sign was leaning at the side of the house with the
words not visible.

A neighbour was less than pleased that the sign was there at all.

"It will affect the resale value of our homes," said the neighbour, who
asked not to be identified.

The sign, more than a metre square, has a City of Toronto logo and the
words: Alleged marijuana grow house operation.

It states that orders to comply have been issued under the building code,
and that the owner of the property has been requested to provide engineers'
reports that structural defects have been fixed and environmental
contaminants cleaned up.

In mid-October, just hours after police busted another indoor marijuana
grow operation in Scarborough, Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter
announced in the Legislature that he was proposing legislation that would
control the proliferation of the marijuana grow houses and "make Ontario
communities safer."

The proposed legislation would allow electrical distributors to cut hydro
without notice to homes suspected of growing pot, Kwinter said. The new law
will also require building inspections of all homes after police have
confirmed a grow-op.

Del Grande said in a telephone interview that even with the minister's
threats "everyone is talking about the problem, but no one is doing
anything about it."

"These people (the owners) barely patch it (the grow house) up, paint it
and sell it."

Six months later, an unsuspecting buyer finds mould and structural
problems, he said.