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BY TREVOR MCNALLY

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Campbellton - It wouldn't be a meeting of Campbellton's Community Planning and Housing Committee if at least part of the discussion didn't revolve around a proposed group home somewhere in the city.

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Trevor McNally/ Tribune

This property on George St. in Campbellton was the topic of a group home discussion at a recent meeting of the city's Community Planning and Housing Committee.

On Aug. 18, city councillors spoke about a request from Michel Guitard to have 12 George St. rezoned to allow for a group home. While having land rezoned in the city to allow for a group home is nothing new, the fact that a proposed home close to another one was the main area of concern.

Kim Thompson, a planner with the Restigouche Planning District Commission, told councillors that currently the building is zoned as an R2, meaning, in laymen's terms, a regular house would be permitted, which is what currently occupies the large corner lot. However, simply rezoning the land would mean the city might all but abandon any current bylaws relating to how close group homes can be from one another.

Currently one group home cannot be any closer than 300m from another.

"There seems to be a large demand for group homes lately," said Thompson. "Rezoning this parcel of land to allow for a special care home so close to another one already nearby would defeat the purpose of distance separation."

The proposed group home would be about 180 metres from a similar arrangement around the corner on Duke St. Thompson reminded council that the previous council did not allow for a group home to be built in 2007 because it would have been close to another such facility. She said another public hearing would also be required if council decided to allow for the home, which would most likely be done through a spot-zoning of the land.

"Right now it was simply a request by Mr. Guitard to look into the possibility of having a home there," said Thompson. "Before we could make any recommendations on this we would certainly need more information on what exactly they are planning on doing."

She said that no firm plans had been given to the RPDC regarding traffic flow, numbers of employees or residents, or architectural drawings or site plans. She said should council decide to rezone the property, it would likely have to revisit "what standards you want to have in place in terms of special care homes."

The committee voted to table the matter until the RPDC gets more information on the proposed development.