LAC LA BICHE - The next stage in the process to build a homeless facility near Lac La Biche's Alexander Hamilton Community Park to help the homeless isn't expected to go unchallenged.
With just days until the deadline for the mandatory two-week advertising period on proposed municipal land re-zoning requests, plans to build the shelter and treatment facility must next go to a round of public hearings. And it sound like some of the public will have a thing or two to say.
"A few residents have reached out to me in regards to the rezoning of the property," said Lac La Biche County Coun. Lorin Tkachuk, admitting that while the overall issue is very important, he too isn't in favour of the selected site near the community park.
The location was decided at a September council meeting following a behind-closed-doors discussion with members of a local transitional housing task force. The task force has been operating for several years, working to create a program for homeless and un-sheltered people in the community. The task force went into the meeting with three options for the location of a new facility that would offer housing and social well-being programs.
The park location was the group's third alternative, but councillors — not unanimously — voted in favour of it.
Council made the first move to rezone the seven acres of municipal land at their Oct. 25 meeting.
Tkachuk, who was in the meeting for the rezoning decision - but didn't vote on the motion, said he has heard from residents who plan to oppose the development. Some, he said, are already planning legal recourse to halt the project.
"There will potentially be some opposition to that, and potentially formal opposition to it through the formal rezoning process, and probably an appeal," he said.
The councillor says community members are watching the project very closely, and he urges municipal officials to "dot all the i's and cross all the t's." His cautions come after hearing from residents who are concerned that plans are moving ahead and money is being spent before the re-zoning has been approved.
Work in progress, budgets approved
Some site work on the proposed location has been completed. Weeks before Lac La Biche County councillors voted to approve the first of three readings to change the municipal land from highway commercial to institutional, municipal crews had started clearing a section of the eight-acre parcel located beside the community park at the Lac La Biche hamlet's eastern border.
Budgets for the overall project have also been set, with costs to provide municipal utilities to the land, along with site grading and engineering coming in at just over $360,000. Those land costs are in addition to the $325,000 to purchase six trailer units that will be moved to the site. Included in the overall cost is a fencing budget for the project of $65,000 and $80,000 for what county officials describe as "internal renovations".
The municipality does have a Transitional Housing Fund of $500,000 that was set aside several years ago by the previous council for a homeless project. That funding, along with $150,000 in grant funding will be used on the current project. Additional funding of about $80,000 was recently transferred to the project from surplus funding to recent infrastructure jobs.
Those funding allocations and the site work all fall within proper guidelines, says Lac La Biche County's Associate CAO of Recreation and Community Services Darrell Lessmeister.
"We are bringing services to the lot, grading and water and sewer to the lot. Regardless of what the zoning is going to be... it's services to the lots that are there," he said, admitting that he too would like to wait until all the zoning has gone through, but with winter temperatures already covering the region, time is of the essence. "We need to get those services in there if there's a hope of getting this up and running this winter or this fall."
While the services will be ready for the municipal property, the mobile trailers that will make up the facility won't move onto the site until the zoning has been approved.
"We are not going to bring any buildings on site until the re-zoning is approved," Lessmeister said.
Public Hearing coming up
The earliest date for that approval is Nov. 22, the day of the public hearing on the project. The hearing is open to the public and residents can present information in support or in opposition to the plan. The public hearing will be held in council chambers in McArthur Place at 11 am that morning.
In recent weeks, many residents have taken to social media to voice their concerns. Some say the new location is too close to prime recreation areas that attract families and visitors. Others say the location is used by nearby high school classes to teach outdoor activities.
Lac La Biche County Mayor Paul Reutov has already called the project a "contentious issue," and also said that even if it is completed and set up at the site, because the trailers are mobile, the location doesn't have to be permanent.
A piece of municipal property in the Bonesville subdivision south of the Lac La Biche hamlet has been used in recent months as an emergency homeless camp. Several sheds have been constructed on the property that has seen about two dozen regular occupants. Although the site was approved by municipal councillors and supported by the Métis Nation of Alberta, no formal permits or re-zoning approvals were ever given.
While the discussions over the new location continue, the Bonesville site continues to operate.
