Members of a local seniors group were stunned speechless Monday night to learn they wouldn't be on the hook for a costly project.
During Monday night's meeting, city council approved the first two readings of a rezoning bylaw to facilitate the creation of a parking lot across the lane from the Elder Citizens' Recreation Association.
The Ninth Avenue property along with the 10th Avenue site that houses the ECRA building are both city-owned but leased by the seniors' group.
If council approves changing the Ninth Avenue property from a single residential zone to a minor institutional one, after an upcoming public hearing "the city will be designing and building the parking lot to the bylaw standards," said planning director Ian Wells.
That includes covering the cost, which was last estimated at $106,000.
The city has policies that it upgrades its land and that they pave their parking lots, said city manager Beth James.
"So this is absolutely consistent as this is city-owned land and we have a long-term lease with ECRA that we would upgrade the land to assist with this new use and that we would cover costs of that," she said.
Some members of council had hinted to the seniors' group that they would be surprised by the night's news, said ECRA president Dave McGraw. "That's more than a surprise, because we still thought we were going to have to pay some money. This is great. It's a bonus."
The ECRA building currently has up to 60 parking stalls, which isn't nearly enough to serve its more than 800 members. The new lot will only offer up to 21 more spaces, but every little bit helps to get members off the neighbouring streets and those with mobility issues a little closer to the doors.
"We're absolutely speechless," said ECRA past president Kathy Nadalin, who led a cheer outside of council chambers following the vote. "We've been waiting for this green light for years, years and years and now the city's going to do it for us."
The board members expressed gratitude for the work city council had done.
Nadalin said Mayor Shari Green arranged for her to meet with Northern Development Initiatives Trust representatives to start the process of applying for a grant.
When the association got their first quote for paving the lot in 2009, the price tag was $77,000, The group was hoping that with a grant, the city would be able to match it and if they had to, ECRA would fundraise for another $20,000.
When they got a revised figure of $106,000 this year, it changed things.
"There's no way we could take that to our members, no way - too much money," McGraw said.
After a story ran in the Citizen last week about the issue, McGraw said he was contacted by someone willing to make an anonymous donation of $20,000 to cover ECRA's costs.
There would have been issues with ECRA getting that NDIT grant since it was city-owned land, said Wells.
The proposed zoning only permits parking as an ancillary use, so staff have recommended that consolidating the Ninth Avenue property with the 10th Avenue ECRA site be a condition of council giving the application final reading.
