Kelowna supportive housing project opponents holding onto faint hope

KELOWNA – Opponents to the McCurdy Road supportive housing complex have collected thousands of signatures against the project but only have until Monday to try to convince Kelowna city council to kill it.

“Four (councillors) are apparently on the right side of the fence now,” Audra Boudreau, the driving force behind the petition campaign, told iNFOnews.ca this afternoon, July 10.

She was busy wading through at least two thousand pages of petitions, meticulously checking addresses and sorting between those from in Kelowna and from outside Kelowna. She won’t have a final tally of signatures for at least another 12 hours, she said.

While the petition is addressed to the province, the number of signatures is expected to have an impact on how Kelowna city councillors think about the project.

On June 17, council granted a development permit for the project. Under provincial law, council has 30 days (until july 17) to reconsider that decision. Only one councillor, Charlie Hodge, voted against the permit.

Monday's afternoon council meeting is the most likely time for a reconsideration motioin to be put forward since it, and a meeting following Tuesday's public hearing, are the only scheduled councl meeitngs before the July 17 deadline.

At the June 17 meeting, council also gave final approval to the rezoning of the land, even though preliminary approval was granted two years ago. That means, the rezoning also falls within the 30-day time limit for reconsideration.

Therefore, if a reconsideration motion passes council on Monday, it could trigger a public hearing on what type of housing the land can be used for. Council could kill the supportive housing project and have the land revert back to its previous zoning when it was used for the Knights of Columbus hall.

If a motion passes on Monday, it will likely call for a discussion on reconsideration with the actual debate not likely to happen until council's July 29th meeting.

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