FALL RIVER: The amendment to allow a 100-bed long-term care facility built as one of the five buildings planned for the Carr Farm development in Fall River was approved by North West Community Council on March 8.
The approval for the Vision 7 developments project will now go to HRM Regional Council for its final approval on the amendment. The project as a whole had been previously approved in 2019 by Regional Council despite vocal concerns from the residents of the area.
At the virtual NWCC meeting, no residents signed up to speak to the amendment for the public hearing.
Ron Pachal, a partner with Vision 7 Developments, said none of the residents who will be in the nursing home will drive so that will not add any extra traffic.
“While there are visitors and staff that come to the site, the traffic coming and going from the site will be less,” he said. “The initial traffic study we did was done pre-COVID19 and has full traffic numbers. We will do an amendment to that to take into account the addition of a nursing home.
“Based on our discussions with consultants there should be no added negative impact.”
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He said they have worked hard at getting the project look and feel just “right.”
“We know how important it is to the community,” said Pachal. “We have gone through a number of site layouts and building designs. This overall work is nearing completion.”
The application was to amend the Land Use By-law for River- lakes to allow a Nursing Home (Long Term Care Facility) use in the RLRC zone applied to Site B (former Carr Farm) on Fall River Road, across from Mason’s store.
Pachal said working with the site engineering they’re also working on limiting the amount of blasting.
“We’re going to keep working on that as well,” he said.
Councillor Cathy Deagle-Gammon, who represents Waverley-Fall River-Musquodoboit Valley and lives just down the road from the site, said that the community needs alternative housing.
“We need housing for our seniors and we absolutely need long-term care,” she said.
She also told the public hearing that there are many concerns residents still have, including traffic and water and well.
“We will be investing our faith in the permitting process (that those concerns are dealt with),” she said.
Deagle-Gammon asked Northwood CEO Janet Simm how the determination is made on who gets the beds at the facility, like the proposed nursing home. She wondered if it were the province and if this means those who live in Fall River and are eligible to go into the facility, would actually be able to “age in place” in their own community.
“There’s no real guarantee that if you live in Fall River, you would be able to access this service?” asked Deagle-Gammon.
Simm answered the query with the following.
“Part of the provincial policy is individuals are able to identify their top choice,” she said. “If they can wait in the community, they are allowed to until that top choice becomes available.
“If they do need placement before their top choice becomes available, they may need to go to an alternate site until that bed becomes available.
Deagle-Gammon asked many questions, which her residents seemed appreciative of on social media, regarding how residents’ wells were protected during blasting; traffic, whether the amendment and zoning change will allow for more nursing homes on the site down the road, etc.
“At this point, the applicant is only foreseeing one building as a nursing home for the site,” said HRM Planner Maria Jacobs.
Councillor Pam Lovelace asked the reasoning for Northwood to go to Fall River for the new facility.
“We’ve been involved with the developer looking at the Campus prior to the announcement of a new long-term care facility,” responded Simm. “When we were advised by the province that our proposal to have an additional long-term care facility would be supported, we naturally thought of Fall River.
“Fall River, particularly around long-term care, is underserviced. We thought this would be a perfect solution for a new facility in that community.”
Deagle-Gammon asked Glenn Clark, the developer from Vision 7 Developments, if there were any plans to engage in any further community consultation/awareness of the project.
Clark said they plan to.
“Our plan would be once we submitted a permit and we can actually speak definitively then we would go out and start to educate and communicate,” said Clark.
The motion to approve the project at NWCC passed unanimously.
