PALMERSTON ‒ Royal Terrace long-term care home has received approval for an addition bringing almost one hundred new long-term care beds to the township.
During a Minto council meeting Tuesday afternoon, a report explained that the single-storey addition would add 99 long-term care beds and 80 retirement home beds to the Palmerston facility.
With 100 people on their waitlist as of April, the existing building contains 67 long-term care beds and 50 retirement home beds.
“The owner is proposing an attractive addition with the internal design of residential feel opposed to institutional,” said Terry Kuipers, director of building and planning services, during the meeting. “As you all know (the owner) is picky about his facilities and likes to go above and beyond what a minimum facility style would be.”
The owner, Kash Ramchandani, is also proposing to completely pave the entire parking area to provide an additional 66 spaces, as well as 10 new bicycle spaces, enhanced Fire Department site access, enhanced landscaping, multiple barrier-free outdoor courtyards, and security requirements for the remaining right-of-way work to be completed.
Upon completion, Ramchandani anticipates needing to increase the workforce on the property by an additional 50 persons.
The site layout has been also designed to permit a series of future cluster or street townhouse units to the north of the existing and proposed building, but as this is a future proposal, it has only been shown as conceptual and is not included in this approval.
“Once those (townhouse owners) need extensive care, they can move into the retirement side, and if they need additional assistance beyond that, transition to long-term care,” said Kuipers. “So it's kind of a three-step process all-in-one development concept.”
However, while Deputy Mayor Jean Anderson was supportive of the addition, she was concerned that the municipality may be saddled with an expensive bill.
"Kash is of a significant age and this is an ambitious project," said Anderson. "(The new addition) would be a great asset...but if we start and then down the road (something were to occur), what happens?"
According to Kuipers, all costs associated with the project would transfer to the next owner.
Currently, Royal Terrace owes the municipality $184,340 for the reconstruction of White's Road and its infrastructure, as the existing water and sanitary mains were undersized and couldn't support the proposed future cluster/street townhouse development.
However, while an application for the construction was put forward in September 2021, due to a “drastic increase” of construction material, a gap between provincial funding calculations, and actual construction costs, the plan was put on hold.
According to the report, Ramchandani needed to obtain their building permit by September 30 or the rates will increase to $184,608, plus any applicable interest.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
