First Adventure cannot afford to appeal for new daycare

By Sean McIntosh

BELLEVILLE – First Adventure Child Development Centre has officially dropped its appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), after rejection from city council in Nov. 2014.

The non-profit daycare appealed to the board to rezone a residence on Maitland Drive and Scenic Drive in order to accommodate a daycare.

First Adventure is no longer appealing to the board because they cannot afford it, First Adventure executive director Debbie Milne said.

“When the municipality did that, we had every intention going to the OMB and having representation, but not legal representation from a lawyer,” she said.

The city decided to send lawyers to the board hearing, according to Milne. Lawyer representation would have cost First Adventure $10,000, so they withdrew their appeal.

“Our mandate is to support the children and the developmental needs of children and families; not to get into a legal battle with the municipalities,” she said.

City Council rejected the proposal in November, when some residents said they had issues with increased traffic and a possible decrease in property value, said Milne.

Egerton Boyce, city council member since 2003, voted for the daycare in November. He said the city did not have involvement with First Adventure’s decision not to appeal the board.

“That’s strictly their board’s position that they had elected not to go to the OMB,” he said.

Boyce said criticism of the daycare from some citizens is unwarranted.

“There was nothing presented to us that would show us that property values would go down, that was an opinion that was expressed,” he said.

Current city councillor Kelly McCaw, who was not on council at the time of the vote to reject the rezoning of the Maitland Drive residence, said she wants the best for First Adventure Child Development Centres.

“I would think an area in Thurlow [would be great] and maybe there’s a better area, maybe there’s another street that’s not so busy that would work,” she said. “I hope that they find that.”