The house at 390 Aberdeen Street is being extensivley renovated to become a counselling office for children and families after a land zoning change was approved by Medicine Hat city council on Monday night. NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT, April 7, 2020.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
A local counsellor plans to bring new life and spirit into an historic Hill-area home that fell into disrepair and was seized twice by sheriffs to quell drug activity several years ago.
Hat native Sonita Goering offers youth and family counselling services and now has city planning approval to renovate and convert the home at 390 Aberdeen Street into an office.
That follows a public hearing held Monday night to change the zoning of the lot, but also years of controversy and a sale from the estate of the former owner.
“We had been looking for quite a while, and when we walked in I told the realtor, ‘this is it,'” said Goering.
“The area has so much history, and (the property); it’s exciting to come in and add to that, and to transform it into a place of health and healing and communication is a very big positive.”
Workers were gutting the home this week as part of a remodel that will see counselling space available while maintaining the layout of a home, and a spruce up of the weathered exterior is planned for this summer.
On Monday, city council approved a zoning change that will allow an office conversion in the structure that sits between the local office of the Red Cross and a recently built residence near a small commercial strip on Aberdeen Street and Fourth Avenue, S.E.
The change, from low-density, was approved by an 8-0 vote, with Mayor Ted Clugston recusing himself as he owns nearby property.
“We purchased it with a lot of thought (regarding) the location,” Goering told council members during a public hearing held via conference call on Monday night.
“My intent is to finish my career (in that location) in Medicine Hat.”
Goering told the Monday’s public hearing adding that she received her counselling certification two years ago after a 19-year career in another aspect of health care.
The home had belonged to Martha Jusilla, one of Medicine Hat’s first female real estate agents in the 1960s. After her death at the age of 104 in 2014, the property was left to her son, Billy. After years of high-profile problems at the house, he died of an apparent drug overdose in 2017.
Likely owing to its reputation and state of the structure, the house remained on the market for several years until Goering purchased it.
“The plan is consider (the ability) to turn it back into a living house if we ever sell,” said Goering.
Council members supported the plan, with several stating the change would benefit the neighbourhood.
“I’m excited to get a look at it when you’re done with it,” said. Coun. Darren Hirsch.
She is now expanding her practice, which typically deals with individuals but includes some group sessions, but felt traffic or parking wouldn’t be a concern.
Coun. Robert Dumanowski supported the proposal, but asked planning department officials about similar home- to health-office conversions that occurred in the area around the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital. Over the years, parking there has been a major concern, and new offices have been controversial.
City planning general manager Kent Snyder said the situation around the hospital is quite different considering the employment base and number of visitors.
As well, he said, the mixed-use designation allows for a variety of future uses, such as private, health or government offices, art studios or restaurants, but its location near the neighbourhood commercial strip makes it well-suited.
“We view them as compatible near a residential or neighbourhood commercial property,” said Snyder.
Development commissioner Stan Schwartzenberger called the plan “a perfect fit” from land use perspective.
