John Ponto's original plan for the former fire hall in Deer Park included a small coffee shop. Even after dropping it from his plans, focusing instead on a new office for his insurance company, city council voted against rezoning the site at 39 St. and Davison Drive from residential to commercial. (Rendering produced by IMC Construction)

By Troy Gillard

Plans for former fire hall extinguished

Insurance business owner leaving Red Deer for Gasoline Alley after council decision

Jun 24, 2020 | 2:11 PM

John Ponto has owned and operated his travel insurance business in Red Deer for over three decades, and with his daughter part of the company he expects it to go on for several more decades.

But that won’t be happening in the city as Ponto is picking up and heading to Gasoline Alley after city council voted 5-4 on Monday against a rezoning application that would allow him to build a new office in the former Deer Park fire hall building.

The building site at 39 Street and Davison Drive remains designated for future residential development after Councillors Buck Buchanan, Tanya Handley, Lawrence Lee, Frank Wong and Dianne Wyntjes voted against the rezoning application. Mayor Tara Veer and Councillors Michael Dawe, Ken Johnston and Vesna Higham were in favour of it.

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Ponto’s business, SurePath Group insurance, has been located in downtown Red Deer on 53 Avenue for the past 12 years. He says ongoing issues plaguing the area are what led him to look for a new home.

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“I have homeless people drinking on the park bench in front of me. There are needles behind my office, my staff is scared to go out sometimes. Clients are sometimes scared to come to the front of my building; they call and ask me to be let in through the back door… I want to get out of this downtown core.”

Ponto doesn’t buy into the traffic concerns cited by some of the councillors who voted against the rezoning bid.

“Developing into to five (residential) lots with two cars (each), maybe teenagers, there’s more traffic on weekends, nights that would happen at that intersection,” he suggests. “I drive that intersection every day, because we live just up the road, it’s not an issue. There was a traffic study done when my application was put in, there’s 50 other intersections around Red Deer that are worse than this one.”

Ponto says he also spoke with several nearby residents who said they’ve never had an issue with traffic volumes at the intersection. Regardless, he says he removed his idea for a small coffee shop as part of his application only to still be denied by council.

Council’s decision is even more disappointing, Ponto says, because the city’s planning commission was on board his idea to renovate the building to look like a 1940s-era fire hall. Had he known council would vote otherwise he wouldn’t have bought it to begin with, he says.

“I truly believe this could have been a good news story, and yet it becomes another negative message,” laments Rick More, CEO, Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce.

“I’ve worked hand in hand with the City Manager in bringing the concerns of businesses to him. He’s worked hard with me in trying to create that (dialogue) and something like this comes up and takes us back to square one again of not being business friendly.”

More says it’s fair to listen to the concerns of nearby residents, but the voice of business owners also needs to be heard.

“I don’t think we got a fair say in the matter and to say I’m disappointed is an understatement.”

Ponto will now be selling the building as he relocates to Gasoline Alley, a decision he says was further helped by the fact that Red Deer County is “easier to deal with.”

The former Deer Park fire hall building was constructed in 1998 for about $3 million and sold after the new Fire Station opened at 30 Avenue and Lees Street in 2018.