Haldi school could be home to a new "high quality dog boarding kennel and daycare" as early as this summer if consultation with the community and rezoning before council goes well.
"It's a 10 acre site, it's fairly private, it's good access," said Don Kehler, the real estate agent for the property.
Kehler met with a few Haldi area residents last week about the proposal and said the meeting went well. The next step is to have a public meeting with the community on Feb. 24.
"I think it's a pretty innocuous use. They still want to know more detail about it for the general community and that's why we're having a meeting on the 24th. We're hopeful that it makes sense for that location," said Kehler Thursday morning as he was walking his dogs.
"From my view it just makes sense to try and talk to your neighbours and listen to any concerns that they might have and try to address them where you can."
Kehler said he's been discussing the proposal with the buyer for the past three weeks or so.
"We've put an offer forward that's been accepted by the seller," he said.
The proposal would require rezoning, so Kehler expects it would take a couple of months to go through the various readings at city council. He said his client is not ready yet to speak more about the business.
"They're hoping to open late spring, early summer ideally."
Haldi resident Laura Jagodnik was one of the people invited to that meeting.
"In my opinion the city has approached the Haldi Road Community in a positive and pro-active manner," she said afterwards.
Jagodnik is the former spokesperson for the group that opposed a 30-bed recovery centre for women for the site.
After approval by city council in 2013, the Northern Supportive Recovery Centre for Women proposal weathered two separate legal challenges. In May 2015, the centre's board said it had ceased efforts to convert the school on the Leslie Road property into a recovery centre.