Steinbach city council has approved a variance for the new Rest Haven Personal Care Home. It will allow the building to come within eleven-and-a-half feet of Woodhaven Avenue whereas the city's Zoning Bylaw requires a 25-foot setback. Architect Jerald Peters told city council Tuesday it's the only way they can make the project work on that site.

"We've looked at a number of different configurations and they don't fit on the site with the program that we do have."

Peters told council they are planning a three-storey, 142-bed, building consisting of small houses that will each have twelve residents to make it feel more like a home than an institution. In answer to questions, he noted it would be a challenge to do the project if council were to deny the variance.

"Likely, we would have to reduce parking stalls on the site, which currently meet the requirements. And, we could be under-parked on the site which could possibly add to street parking and other things like that. We thought that this was the best solution, considering all of the variables."

Only one neighbour, who lives on Giesbrecht Street, objected, saying the change would negatively affect the look of the neighbourhood.

Councillor Michael Zwaagstra says this is a situation where a variance is warranted and he moved approval.

"In this case, we have a rather unique situation where we have Rest Haven seeking an expansion. That means more personal care home beds. We listened to the presentations, we heard the evidence that was presented and council, as a whole, felt it was appropriate to allow this variance, that allowing them to come a little closer to the street was acceptable when we consider the positive benefit that we are going to see from these extra beds and this addition to the community."

Councillor John Fehr seconded the motion, agreeing the value of the project exceeds the concern that was expressed.

"We've had people lobbying for a long time for a facility such as this and to let an opportunity like that pass us by, I think, would have been an error. Nobody likes to see change in their neighbourhood. I've been here for awhile now and I've never heard anyone say, 'yes, I want to see change here.' I understand that part of it. I just think that ten years from now, there won't be any issues."

City council was unanimous in approving the variance.

Rest Haven is continuing to go through all of the advance work for the project and hopes to build next year.