UNITED MOGUL AWAITS CITY DECISION ON DRUG PROJECT

A wealthy businessman's attempts to build a $23-million residential
education complex on the East Side for addicts trying to go clean could be
derailed by city zoning policies.

John Volken, who runs United Furniture Warehouse, bought a square block of
land bounded by Powell and Pandora streets and Commercial and Woodland
drives about two years ago for an abstinence-based, highly structured
facility dubbed the Welcome Home Centre.

The centre would house up to 150 "clean" clients with social and drug
problems for up to two years, providing counselling, life skills training,
education and vocational instruction.

Volken's property, however, is slated for industrial use, and the city has
a policy of retaining industrial land for industry and service businesses
that meet city and port/or river-related needs.

While they support the scheme in principle, especially since it involves a
significant amount of private capital, city staff are concerned about its
proposed size, the availability of long-term funding and the number of
staff relative to clients.

Numbers of full-time staff proposed have ranged from 17 to 37.

"This would be a very good deed," said rezoning planner Phil Mondor, who
wrote a report about the plan that goes to council's planning and
environment committee meeting on Thursday. "It's obvious the intention here
is to address some serious social problems in the city, and definitely we
would want to support and encourage that, but there are challenges."

Council must decide whether to consider a rezoning application that would
allow the project to go ahead, or to consider alternative sites. Volken has
not yet submitted an application, since the project is still at the
conceptual stage.

Even if council agrees to consider the application once it's submitted,
staff is recommending it reject Volken's plans to include apartments on top
of the complex for visitors.

Staff also want a more in-depth report on the proposal, funded by the
proponents.

Bil Koonar, vice-president of legal real estate matters for United
Furniture Warehouse, who's been handling project details for Volken, wants
council to defer any decision on the rezoning application until that report
is completed.

Koonar said the apartments and boardrooms are intended for use by
interested visiting officials, since he and Volken see the complex as a
pilot project that could be expanded across Canada.

As for concerns about long-term funding, Koonar insisted they're unwarranted.

According to the proposal, the centre would be owned by the John Volken
Foundation and operated by the Welcome Home Society, with funding from both
the Volken and Welcome Home foundations. Capital costs for the venture are
estimated at $23 million-$10 million from Volken's foundation, $8 million
from United Furniture Warehouse and $5 million from private donations.

Operating costs of about $5 million would be provided by the Welcome Home
Foundation's endowment, expected to generate $12 million in revenue
annually. Volken said revenue would also be produced by on-site business
activity-such as mattress-making or candle-making-by the clients.

Koonar said the proposed complex is modelled on other successful facilities
in the U.S. and Europe, including Delancey Street Foundation, which has
three complexes, the main one in San Francisco.

"It's not been tried here. I think that's one of the city's bigger fears,"
he said, adding a council decision against rezoning the site would be
disappointing, but not insurmountable. "If it doesn't happen there, it'll
happen elsewhere."