The proposed location for care home on Hadley Road. (Council Agenda Package/City of P.A)

By Dawson Thompson

Council Matters

Care home for disabled adults denied

Jul 15, 2021 | 12:25 PM

A development permit for a residential care home on Hadley Road in Prince Albert has been denied by city council.

The intention was for the home to house up to four adults with intellectual and physical disabilities.

The home was rejected due to the possibility of it changing in the future as there was no guarantee it would stay for the intended occupants.

“This one is supposed to be for disabled adults, so when you oppose the home, it looks like you’re against disabled adults, I’m not,” Coun. Dennis Ogrodnick said during this week’s council meeting. “I’m against companies setting up these care homes and then changing it.

“I’m in favor of care homes, I think they’re very much needed. However, the last two care homes in my ward, we as a city council got burned on.”

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The design for the care home was a bungalow home with an attached garage, something Ogrodnick said would not necessarily fit in the area.

Saskatchewan Housing Corporation, who made the original offer to purchase the lot on 130 Hadley Road, intended to build a home that would meet the general size and aesthetic of other homes in the established neighborhood.

“When you look at the design, it is a beautiful bungalow that fits on Branion Drive or Crescent Heights, it doesn’t fit in Crescent Acres,” Ogrodnick said. “When you look at homes in those areas, they are two story homes, not bungalows. It will be an eyesore in the neighborhood.”

The need for this kind of care home in the city was also brought up during the discussion.

“I don’t think there is a cry for more homes,” Coun. Don Cody said. “If there is, I can tell you right now I know two or three people that will take more people in their homes and they can’t get them, because there is an overabundance.”

If a change were to happen to the type of tenants who occupy the home in the future, it would not have to get city council approval.

“Tenancy does not impact land use,” Craig Guidinger, Planning Manager for the city, told the meeting. “As long as it stays as a residential care home, whether it is adults or 16-year-olds, it would not require further city council approval.”

A resident in the neighborhood also spoke at the meeting and said the facility would deter people from buying lots in the area because of it being run like a business with employees coming and going.

There has been no other location proposed for this care home.

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Dawson.thompson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @dawsonthompson8