Council invited proponents of three seniors’ homes planned for Sechelt to talk about the services that each would offer during the Nov. 2 committee of the whole meeting.
A large crowd gathered with questions in hand for the representative from Trellis, which is planning a 125-bed residential care facility in conjunction with Vancouver Coastal Health, but Mayor Bruce Milne made it clear there would be no discussion about hot-button topics like land use or private versus for-profit health care at the meeting.
“We do want to talk about what this community needs to have in mind and the council needs to have in mind for a full range of services and accommodation of residential services for those who are senior,” Milne said.
The three plans – Pat DeLuca’s Wesbrooke By the Sea, Doug Spani’s Rockwood Ocean Stories and the Trellis Corporation’s Silverstone Care Centre – are at different stages in the process with council.
Each plan needs a zoning and OCP amendment to go forward, so each plan has to come to council for four readings, a public hearing and a development permit.
Currently Rockwood Ocean Stories is the farthest along, just waiting for fourth and final reading by council before building can start, likely before the end of the year.
Wesbrooke has had first reading and a public hearing but is coming back to council with some changes that could possibly trigger another public hearing.
Trellis filed its application on Nov. 14, Sechelt communications manager Connie Jordison confirmed this week. The application is undergoing staff review and will be sent out to the referral agencies within the next two weeks.
“The review period is usually four weeks,” Jordison said. “It is unlikely that this application will be before the planning and community development committee before the Dec. 21 committee meeting, and maybe not until January.”
It generally takes a year or more for a large project to get through all the needed approvals at the District of Sechelt.
Rockwood Ocean Stories
At the meeting, Spani said his 211-unit Rockwood Ocean Stories development between Chatelech Secondary School and the Rockwood Centre is an age-in-place model that allows seniors to move from independent to supportive living on site over time.
He said he’s currently in discussions with a number of care providers that could possibly offer assisted living services as well, but no contracts will be signed until the final approvals from the district are in place.
Units will range in size from studio apartments to two-bedroom suites and residents will have access to a spa, library, lounge, coffee shop, dining room, fitness centre, beauty salon and a gym.
Spani said that once the district gives him the final approvals it will take about 18 months to build the development.
Wesbrooke by the Sea
DeLuca said his 124-unit development pitched for Trail Bay Estates in West Sechelt would be suitable for seniors in independent and assisted living.
Residents would have access to a dining room, games room, salon, exercise room, library and a “range of activities,” DeLuca said. Unit sizes will range from studio apartments to two-bedroom units and DeLuca said he would have a full-time nurse on staff for residents.
He noted that independent living seniors would be able to purchase an all-inclusive package that would likely run around $2,500 a month for a studio apartment with three meals a day, housekeeping, an emergency response bracelet, utilities and transportation on the facility’s bus.
DeLuca came up with the estimated price based on another facility he runs on the Lower Mainland.
Silverstone Care Centre
Mary McDougall of the Trellis Corporation said the 125-bed Silverstone Care Centre would provide the same level of care now available at Totem and Shorncliffe. It would be the only government-funded care home in Sechelt as Wesbrooke and Ocean Stories are private-pay models.
She noted Trellis plans to provide a “social model of care” at the facility.
“While there is a clinical component to this, it’s not even one hour a day that the nurse spends with each resident on an average,” McDougall said.
“There are 23 other hours in the day that something is going on and hence the idea that this is a social model.”
She said the social model includes help with personal care like daily dressing, grooming and going to the bathroom, “as well as the recreation, the activities that we participate in, the levels of social connection.”
McDougall said there would be things like art and music therapy, as well as laundry and cleaning services, meals, respite care, palliative care and nursing services.
Milne thanked all the proponents for their time and said it was beneficial to have the comparison.
