Resident challenges Anne Oake centre variance

A resident has appealed a zoning variance for a women’s recovery centre, claiming the project’s parking lot will bring too much traffic and disruptive lighting to the neighbourhood.

Farhad Ghazizadeh-Ehsaei says the approval of 68 parking spaces for the Anne Oake Family Recovery Centre will cause disturbances in the Montcalm neighbourhood.

“This is likely to contribute to congestion, unsafe vehicle movements, and increased pressure on nearby residential streets not designed to accommodate this volume of traffic,” Ghazizadeh-Ehsaei said in an appeal application for a city variance granted for the project.

The applicant claims the expanded parking area will have noise impacts on the surrounding neighbourhood, as well as a loss of privacy and a disturbance from vehicle headlights.

The project was granted a variance on Jan. 13 to reduce the rear yard setback from 20 feet to two feet, and increase the number of parking spaces to 68 from 13.

The 43,000 sq. ft., 75-bed facility will be a women’s-only addictions treatment centre with a licensed daycare near Victoria General Hospital.

Scott Oake, a longtime Winnipeg sports broadcaster, is behind the project, which is named after his wife, who died in 2021 of an autoimmune liver disease at 65. The Bruce Oake Recovery Centre, named after Oake’s son, who struggled with addiction and died of an overdose at 25 in 2011, opened in 2021.

The project has yet to break ground. A $25-million capital campaign is underway to finance the centre, with $1.5 million committed by the province.

Ghazizadeh-Ehsaei could not be immediately reached Thursday.

The appeal committee will hear the application on Wednesday.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca