Leslie Road resident Janice Sevin launched a legal challenge Monday of the City of Prince George's decision to rezone the former Haldi Road elementary school to allow a women's addiction treatment centre.
On Dec. 12 city council approved the fourth and final reading of a rezoning for 5877 Leslie Rd. The controversial decision allows the creation of the Northern Supportive Recovery Centre for Women - a 30-bed women's addiction treatment centre.
"In my time in this area, for more than 20 years, this lifestyle ... emphasizes rural living by families or homeowners and the resulting privacy and quietude," Sevin wrote in an affidavit which forms part of her petition to the B.C. Supreme Court.
"I trusted that the official policies of the City of Prince George, as reflected in the Official Community Plan, would be respected, and believe that such trust has been broken, and the official policies affecting the Haldi Road rural residential area have been ignored or violated."
Sevin could not be reached for comment as of press time.
However, in her affidavit Sevin said she filed the petition after consulting with other area residents.
City manager Derek Bates said the city has received a copy of the petition, but is making no further comment on the issue while it is before the courts. The city has 21 days to file a response with the B.C. Supreme Court.
Marshall Smith, project manager for the proposed Northern Supportive Recovery Centre for Women, declined to comment.
Sevin's lawyer, Roy Stewart, did not return calls as of press time.
Basis for challenge
Sevin's petition requests the court quash the bylaw rezoning the former school from "rural residential" to a special "therapeutic community" designation. The petition cites three reasons the bylaw should be declared invalid: it is inconsistent with Prince George's Official Community Plan, and therefore illegal; it regulates the users, not the use of, the facility, which the petition claims is impermissible; and it attempts to indirectly amend the Official Community Plan without following the required procedures laid out in the Local Government Act.
"An institution of recovery for up to 30 unrelated women addicts in residence, coupled with up to 14 permanent staff, with supervised visiting by friends and family, is not a residential use of the land," the petition says.
"In effect, the presence of this new institutional use would alter the character of the area and would be inconsistent with the policy of recognizing established rural areas where families have their homes and enjoy an alternative lifestyle to urban living. Council, in this case, neglected to deal with this inconsistency by not initiating a process to amend the Official Community Plan."
Under the Local Government Act, the B.C. Supreme Court may set aside all or part of a bylaw if it is illegal.
If the Supreme Court overturns the bylaw, the property would be returned to the rural residential zoning.
The petition cited the 2009 case of the McLean Lake Resident's Association vs. the City of Whitehorse as an example of a bylaw being overturned because of inconsistency with the Yukon's equivalent of an Official Community Plan (OCP).
None of the statements in the petition have been proven in a court of law.
