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Niagara Falls
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Crossroads Medical Centre still a go, developer says

Plans for building the Crossroads Medical Centre have not changed, the process is just taking longer than many people hoped it would, developer Lloyd Redekopp says.

The facility planned for the intersection of Line 2 and Niagara Stone Road beside Crossroads Public School in Virgil has been approved by NOTL council but still faces two separate challenges before the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT).

A case management conference among the objectors and Redekopp is planned for later this month, but the developer said he does not know if that meeting will resolve the two objections.

A neighbouring property owner has concerns about storm water management and the second objector is the owner of the existing Virgil medical clinic behind Simpson’s Pharmacy, Redekopp said.

“Our plans have not changed. Somebody started a rumour on social media that there has been a change, but it’s not true,” he said in an interview.

If the LPAT hearing goes in his favour, Redekopp hopes to break ground before the end of this year and have the new Crossroads centre open within two years from now, in spring 2021.

The doctors from the Niagara North Family Health Team have all signed leases with Redekopp and remain committed to moving to the new facility presuming it is approved, says Mary Keith, executive director of the health team.

The physicians’ leases at the current Virgil clinic expire at the end of this year and the health team is looking for an interim solution in case the doctors cannot extend their leases until Crossroads opens.

“We are working on it. We just don’t have a formal plan to put forward at this point,” Keith said in an interview.

The former Niagara-on-the-Lake hospital site in Old Town is one of the locations the health team is considering for a temporary home, Keith said. Some members of the health team already work out of the old hospital site, which is now owned by the Town of NOTL.

But that is one of “a couple of sites” in the area that are being considered if the team needs to relocate, Keith said.

Patients are top of mind in the process, she said.

“We are really trying to minimize the disruption and inconvenience for patients. The intention is to provide continuing care with minimal disruption.”

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