Miller-Connaught Residents Signing Up

By 250 News

Standing room only  at the open house Tuesday to talk about the Friendship Lodge

Miller-Connaught residents continue their opposition to the proposed Friendship Lodge.

The majority of residents who attended a public meeting at Ron Brent Elementary School Tuesday evening were loud and clear about their opposition, and they signed their names to a petition which now carries some 400 signatures.  The petition  says  they do not want the  30 unit transitional housing  facility for those with issues of homelessness, mental illness or drug addiction. 

They expressed concerns about the process, convinced that although B.C.  Housing has promised there would be public consultation, that the meetings with the public now are simply token sessions that will   result in nothing more than a check mark on the process “to-do” list.

“You do not put an AA meeting in the back of the bar”, says one resident, who  says the location for  this kind of facility would be better in the  area south of Queensway  off 3^rd or 4^th Avenues.  She says it would still be close to “services” but far enough away from schools and a residential neighbourhood.

One of the people who had worked on the Official Community Plan (which will need to be revised to allow the Lodge to be constructed) attended the Tuesday night session and was concerned about the petition.  “I don’t think  the petition can be considered valid as I think many people  may  have signed their name thinking they were signing the  ‘sign-in’ sheet, I think people  were confused.”  The rest of the folks in that room made it clear, they were NOT confused, they rumbled that they knew exactly what they were signing.  They made it clear, their petition is valid.

BC Housing purchased the property without that sale being conditional on rezoning.  Louise Elms of BC Housing said if the rezoning is not approved, the Province can, and will, sell the property.

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