Olds council amended the town’s land use bylaw at a special council meeting on Dec. 2, potentially allowing for a group home application from Accredited Supports to the Community (ASC) to proceed.
Olds council amended the town’s land use bylaw at a special council meeting on Dec. 2, potentially allowing for a group home application from Accredited Supports to the Community (ASC) to proceed.
The amendment to the bylaw allows for assisted living facilities, emergency shelters, residential care facilities, hospitals and temporary shelters in areas zoned residential.
The original amendment as proposed by town staff would have allowed for custodial care and addiction treatment facilities in residential areas as well.
But council approved a change to town staff’s originally proposed amendment at the same meeting that removed custodial care and addiction treatment facilities from the allowed uses in residential areas.
Custodial care facilities are defined as places where two or more people are residing as part of a conditional or early release program from a correctional institution who would be supervised by at least one staff member.
Addictions treatment facilities are defined as places where two or more people with substance abuse issues are residing while receiving treatment.
ASC has submitted an application to the town’s development department to convert a home on 42 Street into a group home for six individuals with developmental disabilities. The home could be used by some of the 125 residents currently residing in the Michener Centre in Red Deer—which the provincial government has said will close by March 2014—if the town approves ASC’s application. If none of the residents from the Michener Centre move to Olds, other ASC clients could use the home on 42 Street.
Staff in the town’s development department believe that adding the term "residential care" to the land use bylaw will better reflect the group home concept proposed under the ASC application. Under the bylaw, residential care is defined as a discretionary use, meaning that each development application must be approved by the municipal planning commission.
About 15 residents neighbouring the property where ASC has applied to develop the group home attended the Dec. 2 special council meeting, most of whom had voiced concerns objecting to the ASC’s application during a public hearing for the land use bylaw amendment held on Nov. 12. The town received numerous letters prior to the public hearing objecting to the ASC’s application, citing increased traffic in the area, potentially decreased property values, decreased parking options and diminished opportunities for neighbouring residents to enjoy their properties.
Coun. Wade Bearchell said he saw no difficulty with adding the residential care definition to the land use bylaw, which would allow for the ASC application to proceed, but added he felt "very strongly that custodial care and addictions treatment (facilities) don’t belong in our residential neighbourhoods."
Coun. Harvey Walsh told his fellow councillors following the passage of the amendment that he felt much more comfortable with the changes to the bylaw.
"I support it the way it is now. It gives us a better way to move forward," he said.
Following the meeting, Bearchell said until councillors can get more information on potential impacts that addictions treatment facilities and custodial care facilities could have on residential neighbourhoods, he felt they should not be considered under a town bylaw.
"If future councils do look at (allowing addictions treatment and custodial care facilities) they really need to do their homework. Look at how these have existed in other communities because, just because I might feel one way, doesn’t make it fact. We need to really look at the facts," he said.
Bearchell also said more information has to be shared about how to best place an emergency shelter in the community before council can approve that use.
But he added ASC has been a good neighbour in the community for many years and he saw no reason not to allow residential care under the bylaw.
"We have homes in our community right now that have existed for over 35 years and have worked very well in our community and I realize that there are people in our community that have concerns with those, but I think that (group homes) have proven to work well in residential neighbourhoods. They don’t pose a safety concern," he said.
[email protected]
@ballfanatic16
CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK!
