Council denies Sundance Haven move, approves Telfer Bay group home

“Parking and sightlines and traffic volume is just too high [at] this location,” he said. Zurakowski told council that his comments are not a reflection of the organization that operates Sundance Haven, but “it’s really an indictment of this location. It’s the wrong location.”

The Native Coordinating Council (NCC) operates Sundance Haven, a group home for girls between the ages of 13-18. It found that the current site will be too costly to continue to repair in order to stay there, and asked the City if its plans to buy the Mahon Drive property could be approved.

In response, area residents circulated a petition and sent the City a slew of letters. The city received more than 30 letters, overwhelmingly disapproving of Sundance Haven’s request to move into the neighbourhood. At Monday’s meeting, area residents also packed the gallery in council chambers, and the overflow of attendees filled rows of chairs outside of the chambers.

Resident after resident stood behind the podium to speak out against allowing Sundance Haven to become their new neighbour.

Duane Bulat, who lives across the street from the site Sundance Haven was seeking to occupy, doesn’t dispute the organization’s benefit to the community. However, he said he felt the site is unfit for any business, agency or group home.

“My biggest concern is traffic safety, and I feel we all have the right to feel safe on our own street,” Bulat said. He added that his family feels unsafe when they can’t see to back out of their driveway, or when cars miscalculate the turn and end up on their front lawn a couple times a year.

His children aren’t able to play on the front sidewalk because of near misses with cars as well.

“So, the bottom line for me is that this corner on Mahon is proven to be unsafe. And I think approval of this group home will add to the traffic congestion and will lead to more cars parking on and around this dangerous corner.”

Residents, in their letters and presentations also voiced their concerns that Sundance Haven’s operators would not be able to maintain the property, pointing to the appearance of the current location. Fears of falling property values as a result were also presented.

Linda Douglas with Sundance Haven responded to the residents’ concerns at the meeting. Douglas said they’ve spent $60,000 to maintain the current location’s interior. The home is about a century old.

The five girls who live at Sundance Haven are supervised all day and she reiterated that the girls at the home are not delinquents. They also don’t have vehicles, but the home does have a passenger van. As well, the teens’ parents do not go to the home to visit their children, Douglas said.

“By saying ‘no’ to this application, I think you’re sending a message to the youth that they don’t deserve a chance to be productive citizens in our community,” she said.

Council followed the presentations with a brief discussion, with most on council identifying with the traffic concerns of the residents. Zurakowski said he would rather ask administration to work with Sundance Haven to find a location without the “winding nature” of 433 Mahon Drive.

Coun. Martin Ring, who had earlier spoken in favour of the approved private service home at 5 Telfer Bay, supported Zurakowski’s stance. The Mahon Drive property was previously a seniors’ home, and Ring’s grandfather spent a period of months as a resident there. He said there were parking issues then.

“And I think the crux of this one is the location of the home. To be quite honest, I’ll say this to the people of Mahon Drive, if this house were in the middle of the block, with a two-car attached garage on the front face of it that could house another two parking spots right out front in front of the driveway, you’d probably be getting my thumbs-up on this one.”

But Coun. Charlene Miller said she didn’t observe the sort of traffic issues that others were speaking of. That was soon countered by Mayor Greg Dionne, who spoke of his first-hand experience with the traffic in the area. He was involved in an accident when an area resident’s vehicle hit his on the corner where Sundance was looking to relocate to.

He said that if a car parked across from Bulat’s house, other cars have to do “a wide-sweeping duck” to get around it. In Dionne’s case, when a car did that and he was on the other side, the car hit his.

Council went on to vote 7-2 to reject Sundance Haven’s bid to move to Mahon Drive.

It was an outcome that diverged from another development application for a group home that was on the council agenda earlier in the evening. Council gave the go-ahead to Janice Henry and Daryl Simmonds’ plan to house three to four men with intellectual or physical disabilities in an approved private service home.

That project too faced opposition from area residents and was the subject of a petition to block the permit.

Telfer Bay homeowner Chris Bennington wrote a letter to the City and spoke at Monday’s council meeting. He criticized the amount of notice given to residents by the City. In his letter, he detailed his safety-related concerns.

“How will it affect us? Well for one, having a group home on our street with individuals with vague mental, physical and social challenges means that I will be much more on guard when my young children our out playing in the neighbo[u]rhood. No one has been informed of exactly what type of individuals will be moving into the house. As a parent, I worry about what my children may be exposed to at their young age and I am concerned for their overall safety.”

No other resident spoke out at the meeting against the Telfer Bay group home.

A woman with intellectual disabilities, Kathy Thorpe, told council that there is a need for more group homes like this one in Prince Albert.

“People with disabilities, we have rights as much as anybody else. We’re not crazy people that we’re going to rob you or anything like that,” she said.

Thorpe added that another group home like the one proposed for Telfer Bay would help keep people safe and off of the streets. “They would have a better home to live in, like I have a better home to live in.”

There are 80-90 group homes in Prince Albert, according to planning manager Craig Guidinger. And that led Ring to note that there are group homes all around the city and this particular home meets all of the requirements and safety specifications. As for the location, he said it has ample parking in the driveway.

“This is the only time people can pick and choose who their neighbour is going to be, is when a group home application comes forward,” he said. “Other than that opportunity, I’ve got a neighbour selling a house across the street from me. I’ve got no clue who’s going to be buying that house.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames

by Thia James

Council denies Sundance Haven move, approves Telfer Bay group home

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