Sudbury's Red Oak Villa building project moves closer to final approval

Morning North4:57Sudbury city council approves expansion of downtown retirement home

Over one hundred new retirement suites could soon be peering over Sudbury's downtown. A planned 6 story expansion of Red Oak Villa on Ste Anne Road got unanimous support at a planning committee meeting. We have some of the discussion around the project.

There could soon be more living options available for seniors in Sudbury.

A six-storey addition to the Red Oak Villa on Ste. Anne Road was unanimously approved Monday night by the city's planning committee.

The project would add 114 rooms to the retirement home.

Ward 4 Coun. Evelyn Dutrisac said the project is needed in the city.

"I definitely support this," she said to a representative from the developer Autumnwood.

"I think this is just fantastic that you're adding on more retirement rooms or apartments for our residents. So, my hat goes off to you."

The plan still has to go to council for final approval.

It would be built next to the existing Red Oak Villa retirement home near the site of where St. Joseph's Hospital used to be.

Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altman asked the developer to document the project for the city's heritage archives.

She said there is an underground tunnel that still connects the former hospital to the diocese of Sainte-Anne-des-Pins.

"It merits to be documented from A to Z, especially if it will impact this tunnel," she said.

"There are numerous stories that have come out of that, especially the nurses that lived in the residence that would use the tunnel to go to the hospital."