OLDS — The Mountain View Emergency Shelter Society (MVESS) got its wish.
By a 5-2 vote during its Sept. 12 meeting, town council voted to roughly double the amount of space it will lease to the society for an emergency shelter from 0.64 of an acre to 1.2 acres.
The land is located at the intersection of 50th Avenue and 54th Street. Construction of the shelter is anticipated to begin this spring.
MVESS president Joe Carignan was in the council gallery for the discussion.
He was pleased with the outcome.
"I expected some discussion on the topic and we are very pleased with Council’s decision to expand the land," he wrote in an email. "I will take the information forward to our next Board meeting and a decision will be made as to where we go from here and when."
Councillors Heather Ryan and Harvey Walsh voted against a motion to provide the larger amount of land. Both stressed that they see the need for the facility but said more information was needed before a decision should be made.
Specifically, the motion was to amend the Town of Olds' current agreement with the society to “lease from the town the northern portion of the lands with the municipal address of 5001 54th St.”
Council heard a presentation from MVESS spokesman Joe Carignan during its Sept. 6 policies and priorities meeting.
In a nutshell, he asked council to essentially double the amount of land it would make available to the society for an emergency shelter.
He said that’s because the land made available for lease last spring was too small to accommodate Phase 1 (an initial two-storey building) plus Phase 2 (more anticipated bedrooms and transitional housing) as well as a playground and parking.
Also, the larger parcel would enable the facility to be constructed further away from the railway tracks, thus hopefully making life easier for already traumatized residents.
Council was also told the smaller parcel would force contractors to cut down some trees and shrubs, whereas the larger parcel would enable the facility to be located in such a way that the trees and shrubs could actually be incorporated into the setting.
Council decided to defer a final decision to the Sept. 12 meeting.
A request for decision document said amending the agreement was not expected to result in any further costs to the Town of Olds.
Mayor Judy Dahl and councillors Wanda Blatz, James Cummings, Dan Daley and Darren Wilson spoke in favour of expanding the land as requested.
Councillors Heather Ryan and Harvey Walsh spoke against it.
In essence, their argument was the information provided in the Sept. 12 agenda package regarding the MVESS request was not enough because it didn’t include a photo or map showing the entire land owned by the Town of Olds in the area and didn’t give the value of the land.
They suggested the land could be made available to someone else, thereby providing revenue to the Town of Olds.
“This property has a value; we paid for it. I think anything that comes to council that has a value and we’re giving away, we should be documenting that value,” Walsh said.
In addition, it was noted that some interest had been expressed in making some of the land available for overflow parking for the adjacent O.R. Hedges Park.
Concern was expressed if MVESS got all the land it was asking for, the only access to that overflow parking would be via one road on the west side of the land.
Coun. Wanda Blatz said indeed, that one road does provide access to the area.
“I have probably at least a dozen questions I believe I’ve written down, basically, that I don’t think is covered within the small amount of information that has been provided to us,” Ryan said.
She said other details aren’t laid out, like who would pay for any fencing erected on the site.
Ryan said there’s no need to rush a decision on the matter; that if necessary, council could take until around Christmastime to make a final decision.
She also questioned whether councillors Cummings, Daley and Wilson knew the history of the land, having been elected in the 2021 municipal election.
Cummings said he wasn’t concerned about the land’s history, only its future.
Chief administrative officer Brent Williams said the land is shaped like a triangle. As such, he saw little other use for it. A portion of it was described as "very swampy."
Also, he said the Town of Olds has owned the land for about 10 years and received no interest in it.
Community services director Doug Wagstaff said the entire chunk of land has a value of $391,900, according to municipal documents.
He said the land encompasses 16,291 square metres and the amount of that land under discussion is about 4,500 square metres square; about a quarter of that piece.
He said the Town of Olds has “nothing documented” regarding any “commitments to this parcel.”
Mayor Judy Dahl agreed with Williams that the MVESS shelter seemed to be the best use for the land, given there’s been no other interest in it.
She also pointed out that the idea of creating an emergency shelter has been bandied about for about 10 years.
At one time, it was slated to be constructed in the area of the RCMP building and fire hall, but that never occurred.
Wilson spoke in favour of the proposal, saying while the land is of little “intrinsic value,” an emergency shelter is something that is “lacking in our town.”
“I look at this as a benefit to the community,” he said. “It seems like because of the nature of this property it’s not going to generate revenue for us, so I’m perfectly happy with it being an (emergency) shelter.”
Walsh said in the past, it’s been indicated that most of the clients aren’t local.
That prompted a response from Mayor Dahl.
“I don’t think that we have the right to decide and try and figure out who’s going to use the facility, because it’s a high-needs facility and we are regional partners with our region today. And if it happens to be useful for our region, so be it,” she said.
Williams said all council was being asked to do was approve amending the lease agreement with MVESS. Other details, like contours, fencing, utility rights-of-way, will be worked out later.
