Advertisement

WATCH: Penticton residents want city to retract position on shutters

PENTICTON, B.C. — The City of Penticton and some condo owners have been in a long, dragged out battle over balcony shutters.

Some units at Cherry Lane Towers have roll shutters that fully enclose the balcony.

City officials say that is a fire hazard.

“The concern is that without any fire-suppression system, the [sprinkler] system within the building won’t detect anything happening in the balcony area,” explains Anthony Haddad, Penticton’s Director of Development Services.

Marlene Pixley lives in one of the units with a roll shutter.

She says some units have had blinds in the balconies for nearly ten years ago, and it was never an issue until now.

“We’ve never been told how they can retroactively change that on us. We just believe that we should be treated fairly,” says Pixley.

Story continues below advertisement

She wants her shutters grandfathered.

But some changes the City proposes include: removing the shutter, changing the shutter, or putting some type of fire suppression system on the balcony.

Haddad says inspections are underway .

In order to change the shutter, a city would normally require people to pay for permits, but in order to get residents to comply, it is waiving those fees.

 

Sponsored content

AdChoices