SCHOOL BOARD WADES INTO REHAB CENTRE DEBATE

The Vancouver School Board won't try to derail a proposed 39-unit drug
recovery centre for the mentally ill near John Oliver secondary and
Mackenzie elementary schools.

Triage Emergency Services Society, along with the city and Vancouver
Coastal Health Authority, wants to open the four-storey facility at
5616 Fraser St. despite widespread opposition from neighbouring
residents and business owners-hundreds of whom showed up at John
Oliver for two public meetings in early October.

COPE trustee Allen Wong also attended. Last Tuesday, Wong told the
school board's planning and facilities committee about the meeting,
and members agreed to draw up a letter to city council indicating the
recovery centre does not constitute an "incompatible land use" near a
school.

According to board policy, incompatible land uses may result in
increased traffic, litter, truancy concerns, changes in pedestrian
habits, undesirable clientele, or other potential safety or health
hazards. Land uses or proposed changes may include commercial or
retail activities, such as neighbourhood pubs or pornographic
theatres, traffic measures, and controversial public or special
residential facilities.

"Given we're a caring and tolerant, compassionate society, we deemed
it not to be incompatible," Wong told the Courier Thursday.

But the letter infuriated Bill Ritchie, who recently opened a
bookstore on the 5700 block of Fraser and lives on the 5700 block of
Main. Ritchie fired off his own letter to board chair Adrienne
Montani, arguing parents who object to the proposal should have been
given the opportunity to present their concerns to trustees before a
letter was drafted.

"This [planning and facilities] meeting was about endorsing it as a
social program. I don't think it should be the VSB talking about the
social agenda," Ritchie said.

In his letter, Ritchie said parents opposed to the recovery centre are
not "a bunch of 'not in my neighbourhood' bigots" but instead "a group
of concerned parents."

Montani, who lives in the neighbourhood near the proposed recovery
centre, said the letter will urge the city and Triage to ensure the
complex minimizes neighbourhood fears about the safety of their
children. "This, if done well, shouldn't be an incompatible use," she
said, arguing the community is at greater risk if such residential
facilities don't exist.

Montani also noted the letter isn't meant as an approval. "I don't
think it's our place to endorse it or not-it's a city process," she
said.

Ritchie maintains that the board went beyond its authority by coming
up with what he sees as an unsolicited opinion on the issue.

"If you want to get involved, you better have your constituents'
opinions," he said. "They forget that there's a petition out there
[against the proposal] signed by all those parents."