Neighbours get together to buy proposed rehab centre property
Plans have been scuttled for a drug treatment facility that was originally slated to open next week in a residential neighbourhood of Penticton. Neighbours claim they bought the Juniper Drive home to block the facility from going in, while the centre’s operator says she walked away from the sale due to deficiencies at the property.
“We didn’t want to spend that money, but we had to stop it,” said one of the neighbours, Mike Collins.
“Otherwise we would have had a rehab centre 50 yards from our house. Our property actually touches it. We had to. Within a 50-yard radius there are 12 kids under the age of 14. How can you go putting a rehab centre in?”
The operator, Michelle Jansen, disputes Collins’ version of events.
She claims it came to her attention just prior to the sale closing that there were issues with the home — assessed last year at $1.1 million — that would have cost thousands of dollars to fix before opening the facility.
The Coquitlam woman started the Brandon Jansen Foundation in honour of her 20-year-old son, who died from an overdose inside the Sunshine Coast Health Centre in Powell River while seeking treatment for a fentanyl addiction.
John Da Silva, one of the three neighbours who helped buy the Juniper Drive property, said a lack of consultation and the effects the facility would have on other homes in the area were the two biggest issues leading him to take a financial hit to block it.
“They would have had no issue (if Jansen) consulted with the neighbours, let us know what their intentions were, what their plans were to mitigate any concerns, any safety issues with the neighbours and whatnot. Nothing was said. We heard about it through the media, basically,” said Da Silva.
Jansen noted there is no need for consultation with neighbours for a recovery centre in B.C.
“The reality is recovery centres exist, will continue to exist and will increase because of the devastation of the opioid crisis. At the end of the day, it was very well known we were coming. To get neighbours’ approval, I mean, think about it realistically, how many are going to say yes?” Jansen said.
Anthony Haddad, director of development services with the City of Penticton, said it is one of the rare instances where provincial legislation supersedes municipal zoning regulations under the Community Care and Assisted Living Act.
“That allows for what (the Jansen Foundation) were looking at doing with the proposed use under certain conditions,” Haddad said.
The act states certain laws are not applicable, like local zoning, if the property acts “as a residence for no more than 10 persons, not more than six of whom are persons in care.”
The city does, however, have to approve the business license application that came before staff in November.
Withi n a 50-yard radius there are 12 kids under the age of 14. How can you go putting a rehab centre in? Neighbour Mike Collins
The foundation was “working with our building department to ensure the dwelling met various building code requirements for that particular use on that property,” said Haddad.
“We were working with them up until a few weeks back when that business license application was withdrawn.”
Collins believes the facility would have gone ahead had he and his neighbours not intervened.
“They didn’t back out of the deal. We had to buy the house,” Collins said. “We would not have bought the house if (Jansen) had backed out.”
Jansen said there is a constant stigma faced by new recovery centres, but she is still scrambling to finalize another location in Penticton.
“It’s unfortunate that we’ve had to push the timeline because there is a lot of people waiting for beds and a lot of people that are dying in the interim,” she said.
The Jansen Foundation is aiming to open its recovery centre by the end of January or beginning of February 2018.
The facility was originally set to open with six beds, with plans to work with the city to expand to 10 or 12 beds.