Who should clean up trash on vacant Yonge Street lot in Richmond Hill?

Lot at Yonge Street and Levendale Road has been vacant since 2013 since closure of Quebecor printing plant.

Yorkregion.com
April 8, 2019
Sheila Wang

Bruce Rhodes’s heart sinks every time he drives by Levendale Road.
For weeks, if not months, garbage keeps piling up on the east side of Yonge Street at Levendale Road in Richmond Hill, and Rhodes wonders who is responsible for the accumulating mess.

“(I)t would be wonderful if someone felt sufficiently embarrassed, that they would get this mess cleaned up,” Richmond Hill resident Bruce Rhodes posted on Facebook alongside a photo he took of the debris the morning of March 28.

 Abutting a fenced-off, overgrown empty lot on Yonge opposite to Richmond Heights Plaza sits a huge heap of garbage where abandoned shopping carts, large trash bags, broken furniture and old clothes are piled up, ready to spread out to the sidewalk.
“People are expressing their comments, saying that the site is disgusting, which it is!” said Rhodes, whose Facebook post has generated many responses from the community who demanded for the landowner to clean up the “eyesore.”

But who owns the large empty field?

The lot has been vacant since 2013 when a longtime fixture was demolished following the closing of the Quebecor printing plant, yorkregion.com reported.

A view of the lot in 2011/Google Street View

However, there has been no specific plan for the development of the lot, which has been contaminated due to the past printing and manufacturing operations, according to Ward 2 Coun. Tom Muench.

“I can confirm to you that the site cleanup along Yonge Street will be addressed by the property owner,” said Muench, who initially stated that Metrus Properties owned the vacant lot.

He added he has notified the bylaw department about the dumping issue along Yonge Street, which has issued orders of compliance under the property standards to the property owners in the area.

Metrus did not receive an order of compliance from Richmond Hill, said Ennio Zuccon, vice-president of operations at Metrus, nor does the developer own the vacant lot.
Zuccon told yorkregion.com Metrus owns the vegetated field just north of the lot separated by a chain-link fence, and they usually clean up trash quickly.

A further search for the landowner returned 1835942 Ontario Inc., a numbered company that appears to own the vacant lot.

The bylaw department did not respond to multiple requests for confirmation on the landowner.

“Staff have an open and active complaint file relating to the subject property and, therefore, cannot discuss any specifics related to this property/investigation,” Richmond Hill spokesperson Carrie Pitcher responded in an email.

Pitcher wrote that the bylaw enforcement staff are currently working with the owners of the property at Yonge and Levendale to manage its current state.