North Bay council has gone against a staff recommendation which was to prevent Community Living from relocating to Wallace Road. Councillor Mark King says the Wallace Road building, which is owned by Community Living, is more accessible.
King says council did the right thing to re-zone the land in question. He says the current downtown site had many problems and the agency is in a better place.
Before council approved the re-zoning, it heard from quite a few groups opposed and in favour of the relocation. Paul Goodrich represented Community Living in the re-zoning application and he told council that despite the departure, the downtown will see more services in the near future.
Goodrich says good things are coming. The Downtown Improvement Area was opposed to the move.
Chair Bob Alger said if council went against the Official Plan and re-zoned the Wallace site, it could open the floodgates to future requests where other groups as for Official Plan amendments. Community Living told council that if the re-zoning wasn’t approved, it would simply look for another site that was already zoned to accommodate its needs.
