By Vanessa Ybarra

Wildfire recovery manager to help homeowners rebuild

Nov 9, 2017 | 5:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — More than two-hundred homes were partially or completed destroyed in the Thompson Nicola Regional District after this summer’s record-breaking wildfire season.

With a large portion of those homeowners looking to rebuild, residents are facing challenges when it comes to new zoning and rebuilding regulations.

The TNRD recently appointed a recovery manager to help residents through the process.

Bob Finley spends a lot of time on the phone.

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“I’ve done about 12 calls so far today,” said Bob Finley, recovery manager with the TNRD.

Finley worked in the TNRD development services deparment for more than thirty years.

Now he’s been hired as a recovery manager where one-by-one he calls owners who lost their homes in this summer’s wildfires to see how the TNRD can help them rebuild.

“One of my jobs is to try and put them in touch with agency personnel to deal with the issues they have to deal with in reconstruction and make that process as simple as possible.”

210 properties throughout the TNRD, including the Boston Flats Trailer Park and the south Loon Lake area, were destroyed by fire.

While the TNRD waved landfill tipping and appliance pick-up fees during the fires, TNRD Board Chair John Ranta says it was important assistance didn’t stop there.

“We recognize in order to recover from that, some of those people need to have our help,” said Ranta. “We felt the regional district had a responsibility to hire somebody that could assist those residences in trying to recover from the devastation of the wildfire season.”

One of the biggest challenges facing property owners is new building regulations.

“The requirements for rebuilding are more onerous now then they were ten, 15 or 30 years ago when some of these folks actually aquired their properties or structures,” said Finley. 

Some of the new requirements include properties needing to be built further back from rivers and lakes.

Then there’s pressurized water system requirements.

“As soon as you have a toilet, you need to have a septic field,” said Ranta. “These days Interior Health requires you have enough room for a secondary septic field to be built.”

Ranta says the TNRD is considering relaxing some of the rules as well creating a new zoning regulation to make the rebuild process easier.

“We’re considering a new zone that would have a dry cabin which means a cabin that doesn’t have pressurized water coming to it so no septic field would be required,” said Ranta.

For Finley his sole focus  is to listen and be a voice of hope for homeowners left with nothing.

“To expect homeowners to understand the intricacies of that legislation is almost improbable in many ways. Hopefully I’ll be able to try and ease that burden on them and provide contacts that are meaningful for them.”

The TNRD says its recovery program will be available for at least the next four to six months and may extend longer if required.