A popular haunted house in Calgary is allowed to stay up after the city approved structural changes in the name of public safety on Wednesday.
Panamount Panic was shut down last week after someone filed a complaint with the City of Calgary about how the spooky structure created a blind spot for traffic.
But after talking with city officials for the past few days, Ron Motteram said he is able to keep the house open if he makes a few changes.
“The thought of taking it down after all the work putting it up and moving it was a lot to deal with, so to be able to keep it up is huge. It’s really going to help the community out,” Ron said, noting the high amount of support received.
He said fellow haunted house hosts plan to meet with the city in the new year to discuss building permits.
Ron’s son, Quinn Motteram, said the changes include cutting the corner on one side, removing the roof and fireproofing the interior.
“We cannot put the wood up as it falls under building codes and it becomes a permanent structure, so that’ll have to come down as well as cutting off a piece of the corner here on the left side just to make it more visible for drivers,” Quinn said.
He said they are willing to make it work.
“We’ll manage to change it how they want so we can keep it and still manage to keep it as scary as possible and still as safe as possible,” Quinn said.
For the family, Halloween comes with a personal connection.
“When we’re doing Halloween, my father used to always come by and was very proud of his grandson doing all of this,” Ron said. “Unfortunately, he passed on Oct. 3 last year. We just about didn’t do it last year because of that, but we pulled it off and kind of did it in memory of him.”
Panamount Panic will be collecting donations for the food bank with the hope of filling Ron’s 14-foot utility trailer.
The house is located at 131 Panamount St. N.W., and is open Oct. 25-27 and on Halloween.
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