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It’ll be “anything goes” on Ottawa’s beloved traditional mainstreets if a new homeless shelter on Montreal Road is approved, councillors heard Wednesday.

It was the planning committee’s second day of public hearings regarding the Salvation Army’s plan to move its George Street shelter to Vanier.

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Montreal Road is designated as a traditional mainstreet and that underpins much of the opposition to the current proposal.

Attention was also paid to a 2008 study that called for limiting to four the number of shelters in Ward 12, which includes the ByWard Market, Sandy Hill and Vanier, and prohibiting shelters on all traditional mainstreets.

Michael Polowin, a lawyer representing several private-property owners who oppose the project, noted the city has not updated the 2008 study, nor required the Salvation Army to prove the conclusions reached previously were incorrect.

“If you’re going to make an evidence-based choice, then you need the evidence,” Polowin said.