Opponents of the Northern Supportive Recovery Society for Women were expected to launch a legal challenge against the city this week.
On Dec. 12 city council approved the fourth and final reading of a rezoning bylaw which would allow the creation of a 30-bed women's addiction treatment centre at the former Haldi Road elementary school on Leslie Road. Opponents of the project argue the treatment centre is not a good fit for their rural area.
"We hope to file [the legal challenge] today," Haldi area spokesperson Laura Jagodnik said Monday.
Jagodnik and other members of the community group opposed to the treatment centre have not disclosed what the nature of the legal challenge is.
However, during the Oct. 3 public hearing on the issue, lawyer Roy Stewart said the rezoning violated the city's Official Community Plan.
"If you're going to go into a rural residential area and insert a totally alien use, there has to be a rational planning purpose," Stewart said during the hearing. "The OCP references in both the staff report and the L & M Engineering report are wrong. If you enact this based on the wrong policy, it is easy to challenge."
As of November, residents had raised over $16,000 to bankroll a legal challenge.
Mayor Shari Green and Northern Supportive Recovery Centre for Women project manager Marshall Smith declined to comment on the impending law suit.
See Wednesday's edition of The Citizen for more coverage on this story.
