By LAURA CUDWORTH , STAFF REPORTER
Posted 5 hours ago
Residents on Water St. are taking a wait-and-see approach to a drug rehabilitation clinic that could open in their upscale neighbourhood.
The owner of the property at 210 Water St., Gordon Naylor, declined to give details about the intended use.
"This company is not mine alone and I hesitate to say what we're doing," he said in a recent interview.
He didn't return a call asking for more details.However, Dave Carroll, the city's chief building official, said his understanding is the building will be turned into a treatment clinic for drug rehabilitation.
Water St. resident Sean Blaine said most of the neighbours are aware a drug rehab clinic is a possibility.
"There's a lot of people in the neighbourhood interested in what happens in the neighbourhood," he said.
"There's no sense fretting over what might be. We're just waiting to see what happens."
Another resident, Rob Ritz, echoed similar sentiments.
Just last year, Hatts Off, a company part-owned by Naylor, applied for a zone change to allow for a drug rehab centre in Cambridge called Caverhill Manor.
The request met with opposition from area residents, in part because the property is across the street from Galt Collegiate Institute.
A public meeting was required because of the zone change and there is still footage of that meeting on YouTube.
Cambridge council did allow the zone change in March this year.
The property at 210 Water St. does not require a zone change or a public meeting.
The building was zoned for several uses when it was a school board office and sold by the Avon Maitland District school board.
"When we did the new bylaw the owner requested those uses remained . . . it's a reflection of the use that was there," said Barb Dembek, director of planning.
Naylor and Water St. neighbours have had conflicting ideas about what should be allowed on the property. The Nancy Campbell Collegiate Institute founder wanted to turn the Water St. property into a school, but the neighbourhood opposed any zone changes.
Council agreed with the neighbourhood and Naylor appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board.
Naylor lost his bid at the OMB and three years later pulled Nancy Campbell out of Stratford and moved it to London.
The property at Water St. operated as a condominium sales centre recently.
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