A private inpatient/outpatient addictions and mental health counselling centre won’t be developed in Springbank any time soon after the building developer Opus lost its Alberta Court of Appeal decision on March 28.
Opus Corporation had taken Rocky View County (RVC) to court last year after a permit issued for the proposed facility in 2022 was rescinded at the County's Subdivision and Development Appeal Board (SDAB).
That development permit was necessary for Opus and Edgewood Health, its proposed tenant, to build its 40-client private facility in Springbank.
The SDAB denied the appeal in 2022 because members felt the proposed use for the facility was more in line with a "Medical Care Facility" instead of a "Clinic," as was designated by the original permit issued for the site.
Per RVC’s Land Use Bylaw, the land has a designation of “Business, Regional Campus,” under which a Clinic is permitted, but not a Medical Care Facility.
Opus initially received a conditional approval for the facility in August 2022, allowing them to use the space as a Clinic until the end of 2025. When Opus applied for a permanent development permit in October 2022, they were denied.
According to court documents, a Clinic Care Facility is defined as the principal use being to provide medical and health care services on an outpatient basis only, while a Medical Care Facility is defined as a development providing, "room, board, and surgical or other medical treatment for the sick, injured, or infirm including outpatient services and accessory staff residences."
Due to Edgewood Health’s plans to provide overnight care and accommodation, it was deemed medical and doesn’t align with the property's current land use.
Opus argued in court the SDAB erred in law because the proposal had not changed significantly since being approved conditionally earlier in 2022, and therefore should not have been rescinded.
According to the law, if an issue has been determined between parties in a prior decision, neither party should be allowed to fight that issue again in a subsequent action between the same parties.
While court documents stated that the SDAB did not have jurisdiction to rescind its first decision, the fact that the initial permit was time-limited meant a second application for a permanent permit would inevitably be necessary, and that the decision to issue the temporary permit was not the final one.
The court concluded it was not improper for the SDAB to reconsider Opus’ second application due to the first decision being only temporary.
The court also concluded that SDAB’s reasons to deny the second application demonstrated sufficiently why it had reached the decision it did.
SDAB had stated it wasn’t until the second hearing that Dr. Basedow, Vice President for the Edgewood Health Network, submitted that there could be up to 20 clients requiring overnight stays at the facility, despite the facility predominantly having clients who would leave the facility in the afternoons, or evenings, and return for treatment the next day.
“Based on the reasons provided by the SDAB, there can be no doubt as to why the SDAB made the decision it did and what evidence it relied on to reach that conclusion,” the court explained.
The court concluded that the reasons for denying the appeal were intelligible and transparent, and the SDAB did not err in law by failing to provide sufficient reasons.
The appeal was dismissed on March 28 in Calgary, with all costs of the proceeding being placed on Opus.
The proposed counselling centre was meant to offer inpatient and outpatient services to treat drug addiction and concurrent mental health problems for its clients, who were to pay for their own treatment. It was also going to provide PTSD counselling for first responders.
The service offered in Springbank was to have clients who were "highly-screened," Edgewood Health told the Rocky View Weekly in an interview at the time of its first permit approval, and would not accept publicly-funded admissions.
