The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 445 is located on Lansdowne Street in Callander, and members are considering building a housing project next to the main building, possibly on the baseball field adjacent to Lansdowne Street, as the Legion owns that land.
Everything is in preliminary stages now, and it may take some time to work out all the details The site has to be rezoned, the head office of the Legion must approve, and financing must be secured, but momentum for the project is building.
“Nothing has been finalized yet,” explained Legion Branch President, Ronald Devost. “We have a building committee put together, and we’re working with the municipality, but we’re probably two years away” from shovels in the ground.
The idea is to build apartments to rent to veterans, Legion members, and seniors with a portion of the units designated for lower-income earners. How many units, and the cost of the units, is still a while down the road, so don’t contact the Legion looking to have your name on a list. No such list exists. The committee isn’t yet sure if the project will even begin, let alone reach completion.
But they are trying – “right now we’re just getting our ducks lined up” to see what the path ahead might look like to get such a development off the ground, “to see if it’s feasible.”
The Municipality is helping to provide the building committee with information regarding zoning laws and are also looking into potential funding sources from the Provincial and Federal governments. Council supports the idea.
See: Legion officially closes doors, looks forward to new building
It’s not the first time this has been done. The Legion in Sault Ste. Marie, Branch 25, went through a similar process. The Legion building was in bad shape, and members there decided to demolish the building and replace it with a 107-unit apartment building, complete with a new Legion Branch within.
The community gained some much-needed housing, and the Legion gained a new space and a new income stream from rent. It’s a model other Legion’s are looking into, Devost noted.
“There are a lot of obstacles, but we’re definitely hoping that down the road there is something that can happen,” Devost said. “We’re hopeful. Stay tuned, and we’ll see what happens.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
