Newcastle Place at 250 Terminal Ave. is run by Island Crisis Care Society, providing shelter to roughly 65 people in need. It's one year anniversary of construction is coming up at the end of the year. (Spencer Sterritt/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Spencer Sterritt

Newcastle Place

Lawsuit over zoning process for Terminal Ave. housing dismissed in Supreme Court

Nov 7, 2019 | 3:55 AM

NANAIMO — A Supreme Court lawsuit over special provincial rules to hastily build a temporary housing site in Nanaimo has been struck down.

The failed lawsuit was brought by Vancouver Ave. resident Janet Buechler, who lives adjacent to the housing site at 250 Terminal Ave.

She claimed the immunity rules which let BC Housing buy the land and install the housing without going through public hearings and community consultations didn’t apply because the province doesn’t operate the day-to-day operations of the site.

Instead, responsibilities such as site security, rent, programming and client agreements are handled by the non-profit Island Crisis Care Society.

However, the judgement from Justice Amy Francis released on Wednesday, Nov. 6 found “BC Housing has a more robust role with respect to Newcastle Place than the plaintiffs suggest.”

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She pointed to how BC Housing sets the budget and provides a substantial portion of funding for the site and is “responsible for onsite operational reviews and high level oversight.”

It was BC Housing, not Island Crisis Care Society, who was involved in high-stakes housing discussions with the City of Nanaimo in the summer of 2018 about the sprawling tent city, which was closed and residents moved into temporary housing.

The timeline of closing tent city and building the housing sites was compressed and even required a court-sanctioned delay of moving roughly 150 people out of the downtown Nanaimo campsite.

Justice Francis said putting the housing development through the full zoning process was “incompatible” with the place to re-home those who’d lived in tents and shanties for nearly eight months.

“It was open to BC Housing (to use immunity rules) to bypass municipal zoning regulations and to erect and operate Newcastle Place as a temporary supportive housing facility,” Justice Francis said.

As a result of losing the court case, Buechler now has to pay the court costs of the many defendants involved.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit