Details of a proposed seniors’ complex for a landlocked piece of land in Charleswood remain sparse, despite two recent public meetings on the project, area residents say.

Two open houses were held Wed., April 4 for the project, which developers want to build behind the Charleswood United Church on a piece of aspen forest between Buckingham and Dieppe roads.

"My gut feeling is to say ‘No, please don’t make change,’ but realistically, it has to be based on facts. And I don’t have enough facts from the meeting today that I was hoping to get," said Roblin Boulevard resident Chris Stranc following the afternoon meeting.

The Charleswood Red River Masonic Lodge says the project will address a lack of transitional housing for area seniors. It hopes to purchase an L-shaped portion of land in the forest from the church and a few homeowners along Dieppe to build the not-for-profit project.

But too many questions remain about the scope of the project and its potential impact on surrounding residences, local taxes, and traffic issues around Dieppe School, Stranc said.

"My kids went to Dieppe school, and just the amount of traffic that goes through this particular area that’s pretty important to me," he said. "My kids are all grown up now, but for the next generation of kids, I want to make sure the streets are safe."

Buckingham and Dieppe Road residents have been circulating a petition opposing the rezoning of land that would need to occur to accommodate the project.

Joel Masniuk, a Dieppe Road resident, was hoping to see renderings of the project and how traffic issues would be addressed. He was also hoping to learn how drainage issues would be handled as the forest acts as a natural retention pond.

"It’s vague," he said.

Bill Palmer, a representative of the Charleswood masons, said the plan is still preliminary and much work still needs to be done, including calculating the full cost of building the project.

"The meeting, as far as the masons are concerned, is a little premature," he said, noting it was held on the advice of city officials. "There’s nothing we could answer that was cold, hard and factual. We won’t have answers until everything is in place… for what information they want.

"If it turns out it is cost prohibitive to proceed with sewer and water and infrastructure to make the project viable, it will be abandoned," he added.

The masons, along with the city, will review the sessions’ exit surveys and proceed accordingly, Palmer said. A future public meeting about the project would include renderings and more costing information he said.

"If the community in general is opposed to it, why would we start a war with the community?" he said, noting the mason’s would pursue the project elsewhere in Charleswood.

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