Cranbrook’s city council gave their third reading to a plan to rezone a property on 12th Avenue South to allow a rest home for adults with special needs.
Acting mayor and city councillor Mike Peabody said Nexus Community Living Society bought the former bed & breakfast with the intent to convert it into a rest home.
“Their plan is to turn that into a home for individuals with intellectual disabilities,” said Peabody. “Unfortunately, the bed & breakfast was zoned as core commercial, so we just had to change the zoning to residential to accommodate that facility.”
City council was presented with a proposal to rezone the lot and amend the official community plan (OCP) to allow for a new use for the property.
“This rest home will support adults with intellectual disabilities to ensure they have equal opportunities to access and live within, their community,” said a statement from Nexus to the City of Cranbrook. “This home will have professional support staff 24 hours per day, seven days per week; ensuring the needs of those living in the home are met and, ultimately, the home is maintained to a high standard.”
Peabody said the new use of the building will be a great addition to the services Cranbrook has.
“It allows them to be more of a part of the community. They have access to the downtown, grocery stores, local parks downtown and the restaurants,” said Peabody. “It’s also going to be next door to the Foundry, which will be up and coming. Hopefully, they’ll have a working relationship with each other.”
After the approved rezoning, the next step will be renovations to make the building more suited for Nexus.
“They’re one of the social services that we have that probably goes unnoticed by a lot of people who live here, but do a tremendous amount of work to help out the individuals they work with,” said Peabody.
