City of Powell River Council will decide on a temporary use permit for an emergency weather shelter at the Community Resource Centre (CRC) at the December 21 meeting.
At the December 7 city council meeting, councillors initially voted to allow non-commercial, short-term overnight accommodation use to support the emergency weather response centre until April 15. However, corporate officer Chris Jackson alerted council at the end of the council meeting to the fact that the temporary use permit had changed significantly, and so the city reissued public notice that the matter would be voted on at the next council meeting.
There are two subjects, including addressing all deficiencies related to life safety conditions at the CRC and existing overnight shelter to the satisfaction of the fire chief and building inspector, and updating the good neighbour agreement to include both facilities, and providing a copy to the director of planning services to review.
In the original recommendation to council, it had also stipulated that there be daily sunset-to-sunrise professional security to support operations of the emergency shelter and emergency weather response centre, but in a motion made by city councillor Trina Isakson, the security stipulation was not part of the motion.
Neighbours Scott Gibson and Dr. Ashok Varma both raised concerns about the location of the shelter at the CRC, expressing that they were not against an emergency weather shelter, but were concerned about the location.
Lift Community Services housing services manager Julie Jenkins indicated that if there was a security stipulation, the centre would not be opened.
Council initially approved the temporary use permit, with councillor Jim Palm and mayor Ron Woznow voting in opposition. However, with Jackson’s stipulation, the matter will be voted on at the December 21 meeting after public notice has been served by advertising in the Peak.
At the December 5 committee of the whole meeting, Varma, whose dental office is adjacent to the existing overnight shelter adjacent to the CRC, spoke about the challenges related to being near the facility.
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