Legal action is looking more likely for the opponents of the women's recovery centre in the former Haldi Road elementary school.
"We have met with Roy [Stewart], our lawyer," confirmed Haldi Road Committee member Laura Jagodnik. "We really didn't want to see this go to court again, but there has been an overwhelming response from our community to pursue this."
City council voted 8-1 March 4 to approve third reading of an amendment to the official community plan and rezoning bylaw to facilitate the creation of the Northern Supportive Recovery Centre for Women in the rural residential neighbourhood.
This was the second application for the project; the first was thrown out after the neighbourhood residents successfully took their case to the Supreme Court last year.
Committee members will meet again Thursday to hammer out a plan of action that will now include residents of the city as a whole.
"We've had an overwhelming response even from members outside of our community, willing to give us donations. So now it is city wide - it's an amendment to the OCP, so other citizens of Prince George are realizing that," Jagodnik said.
According to Jagodnik, neighbours were disappointed members of council didn't really discuss Stewart's presentation during the four-and-a-half-hour long public hearing on the issue. He highlighted areas that would make the proposal inconsistent even with a changed official community plan.
The hope is that council will take a step back and not give the project final reading, Jagodnik said, instead of remaining on a collision course to more legal action
"Maybe something positive can come out of all of this instead of waiting a whole other year and [incurring] the cost to everybody, too," she said.
But in the meantime, an open dialogue has sprung up between recovery centre proponents and their detractors.
"We've been talking regarding some of the covenant wording, about capping wells and neighbourhood agreements and all of that," Jagodnik said. "This might be a little too late right now to make a difference, but we are still willing to keep those line of communications open with them."
