Kimberley City Council held a public hearing on the Kimberley Crossing seniors project last Tuesday evening at their regular meeting, and also set the date for a public hearing on a different housing project on Church Avenue.
The Church Avenue project is the renovation of vacant buildings owned by the Kimberley Lions Club and Project Society to provide eight low income housing units. This will require a zoning change. With a zoning change comes a public hearing and a chance for neighbourhood residents and others to provide feedback on the project. That hearing has been set for the next regular meeting of Kimberley City Council on February 27, 2017.
As for Kimberley Crossing, unlike the first public hearing where concerns were heard — mainly on traffic patterns and the exit onto Highway 95A, this time there were no speakers voicing concerns.
Gordon Cory spoke for the proponent, Westcastle Developments, summing up the three-phase seniors housing project. The plan is to develop three different types of seniors housing; one a 40,000 square foot building designed for multiple uses, one of them being extended care. The building will follow an American model, and utilize concepts such as training younger seniors to care for older seniors.
“This could be the first education centre for that in Canada,” he said.
There is also an opportunity to use the building for respite care and also for rehabilitation.
The second phase will involve nine duplexes of completely independent living, although those residents will be able to use the amenities in the other seniors building as well.
The third phase, which Cory said could be some years down the road, will be an assisted care facility, similar to Garden View Village.
At this point, Cory said that although there had been discussions with Interior Health about the potential for assisting with rehab cases, the developers would prefer to be independent of IH and government. He says there has been strong interest from different societies such as the Royal Canadian Legion, the Masons and more in providing some assistance for lower income people to make use of the facilities.
As for traffic concerns, a safety review concluded that there were no concerns with the intersection of 302 Ave and Highway 95A but that the intersection with the Kimberley Golf Course access would have to be modified somewhat.