Plans to establish a Northern Supportive Recovery Centre are back before city council Monday night.
An application for a zoning change to allow a 30-bed women's facility in the former Haldi Road elementary school is up for first and second reading.
The project was originally supported by city council in December 2011, but scrapped this August following a successful legal challenge by an area resident. A Supreme Court judge ruled the approved zoning change - from a rural residential to therapeutic community - was inconsistent with the city's official community plan.
According to centre spokesperson Dr. Michelle Sutter, there are two major differences with the new application - one being the inclusion of an OCP amendment.
The other is that the zoning will be very specific.
"The rest of the zoning for the area remains the rural residential and we're asking for the therapeutic community zoning for this particular parcel of land only," Sutter explained. "That was one of the concerns expressed by the neighbours in the previous zoning - that once this one came in, it would open the door for other groups coming in."
In their last application, recovery centre proponents asked for - and received - a comprehensive zoning change that would have accommodated substance abuse, social spiritual and medical recovery programs as well as education and vocational skills training.
Under the new application, the zoning would remain rural residential, but would have the added use of having a therapeutic community only for the particular parcel of land at 5877 Leslie Rd.
This same type of zoning specificity is already in use in the city, with a property zoned as business industrial augmented to allow an office supply or home furnishing retail business.
Sutter said the recovery centre board has spoken to some, though not all of the surrounding residents and that they are still considering the option of a broader information campaign on the project.
"We want to make sure people are fully and correctly informed regarding this facility," she said, noting the centre's intended use as an abstinence-focused treatment centre. "There's been fear that this facility will bring in drug dealers and the like... there's no alcohol or drugs at all in the centre, not will they be allowed. And there's security to ensure this."
