Mustard Seed plans nixed by city council

By Tim Kalinowski on March 25, 2021.

Tim Kalinowski
Lethbridge Herald
tkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com

In the end the “Nays” had it after city council voted to reject The Mustard Seed’s bid to open a new sober shelter site at the 100 block of 13th Street South.

While recognizing the need for such a facility in the community, all councillors, including those in favour, felt that perhaps not enough public engagement had been done by The Mustard Seed with regards to this particular proposal.

“This is something I had high hopes for,” said Coun. Jeffrey Carlson prior to casting his opposing vote. “I was excited, interested, keen to see some solutions come forward. However; in initial discussions and chats with The Mustard Seed, I think we were very clear, as council, that there would be some concerns. And we expected a lot of community engagement to occur. I was really hopeful for that, and I was hopeful that we would have a couple of neighbourhood community champions come forward. So I won’t be supporting this at this time; with a bit of a heavy heart. Not even a bit: with a very heavy heart. Because I think we do need services in our community. But, I think, if we start on uneven footing, or troubled footing, without great support in the neighbourhood– I know where this is going to end up.”

Coun. Belinda Crowson also stated her opposition to the proposed site.

“There may never be a perfect location (for this), but there may be an imperfect location,” she explained. “There may be ones that are worse than others, and, to me, that is where my brain is. Do the benefits outweigh the perceived risks? Is the risk of doing nothing outweighed by the risk of doing something? The one thought I can’t get out of my head is this is the entrance to the main street of downtown northside. This is the entrance to the main area, and this is what you would pass every time you enter north Lethbridge on that main street. There is no perfect location, but this is an imperfect location. I cannot support this location for this purpose for those reasons.”

Coun. Blaine Hyggen, who has consistently stated his opposition to this proposed location, said the City needs a better plan on how to site these things which will not cause such public backlash from the business community in particular.

“It seems we are being reactive rather than proactive right now,” he said, echoing comments from several of the presenters earlier in the evening. “We need to get out there, and we need to find places that may fit. And we need to work with the businesses around that neighbourhood. It just seems we have a cart before the horse here, and we really need to support our businesses; especially in light of what has happened over the past while, and then (with) COVID coming in.”

Even among those who supported the zoning change on council, their response to The Mustard Seed application could best be described as lukewarm.

“This is really difficult for me because, as you know, my background is in social services, and I always support things like this,” explained Deputy Mayor Rob Miyashiro, who did eventually vote in favour of it. “I am not sure at this time if enough community engagement has occurred with this project. I am still trying to get someone to convince me that I should not approve this.”

Mayor Chris Spearman was also subdued in his support of the project.

“I am going to support it from the point of view that it is something our city desperately needs,” he explained, before acknowledging he could see the way the vote was going. Spearman agreed there would likely need to be a larger discussion in the community on how and where to site shelters or other supportive living facilities going forward. He pointed to planning done in Edmonton and Calgary which has successfully been able to navigate the right balance there as perhaps a model for Lethbridge to take inspiration from.

“So what is the right location? The right location, I can say, is not out of town,” Spearman stated. “We have got to find places in town where we can put supportive housing.”

The Herald did reach out for comment on this story from The Mustard Seed, but did not hear back from them prior to press time on Wednesday.

City council voted 7-2 to reject the Mustard Seed’s proposal to build a sober shelter at 110 13 Street South following the public hearing during Tuesday’s council meeting.

The public hearing extended past 10 p.m. in the evening as over 30 speakers directly addressed council on the issue– in addition to the dozens who emailed or sent in written responses supporting or opposing the shelter proposal. The final decision came after 11 p.m.

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