Accredited Supports to the Community (ASC) was awaiting the expiration of the appeal period on a recent municipal planning commission decision to allow a group home on 42 Street before proceeding with modifying a home to accommodate people with special needs.
Accredited Supports to the Community (ASC) was awaiting the expiration of the appeal period on a recent municipal planning commission decision to allow a group home on 42 Street before proceeding with modifying a home to accommodate people with special needs.
The appeal period was set to expire on Jan. 14.
The MPC allowed ASC to proceed with the application to convert a single-family home into a group home for a maximum of six developmentally disabled individuals who use the agency’s services. The decision was made at an MPC meeting on Dec. 19.
"If this all goes through – and we’re hopeful it will – then we have to finalize the purchasing (of the home) and then from there we need to plan what steps we need to take for renovations. We didn’t want to jump the gun," said Linda Maxwell, ASC’s executive director, in an interview last week.
It’s undetermined when a move-in date might take place at this point.
The ASC will put out a call for proposals from contractors to make a few modifications to the interior of the house such as widening the hallways to make the home livable for up to six ASC clients. Maxwell said none of that work could be done until after the appeal period had expired.
"We have an idea of what we want to do and we’ve had people who are in a position to tell us what kind of things we can and can’t do, but we haven’t gone further with that. We’re really in a holding pattern right now," she said.
ASC is also working with the provincial government on referrals of people who might occupy the home, including people from the Michener Centre in Red Deer that the provincial government plans to close in March. Those discussions would also involve clients’ families and what the families believe might be in the best interests of their family members.
Maxwell said the ASC also works closely with the provincial government to ensure ASC facilities are meeting provincial government standards, especially when making modifications to structures prior to people moving in.
"The other thing that has to happen is when we’re preparing a home – any home – we must meet provincial accommodation standards, so there’s steps there where we need to have inspections and that kind of stuff. There’s just a number of processes that we have to be following," Maxwell said.
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