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Council votes to prohibit future drive-throughs, gas stations

Council votes to prohibit future drive-thrus and gas stations in Kimberley.
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Council votes to prohibit future drive-thrus and gas stations in Kimberley.

At the meeting on Monday, Jan 27, Kimberley City Council heard a presentation from Manager of Planning and Sustainability Troy Pollock and planner Errian Scott-Iversen regarding a potential “path forward” regarding the future of drive-thrus and gas stations in Kimberley.

This represents the latest in a debate that has been going on in Kimberley since July, 2023, when, following lengthy discussion and extensive community feedback, Council declined an application to amend the Official Community Plan (OCP). This would have allowed for the rezoning of a parcel of land to allow for a new gas station and drive-thru restaurant.

In March, 2024, Council began the process of seeking community feedback on a policy to guide the development of drive-thrus and gas stations in the city.

A survey was posted, which was sent to the Chamber of Commerce to circulate among its members and Interior Health’s Healthy Community’s program for comment. The Accessibility Advisory Committee was also consulted.

A delegation from Jay McKeen and Jason Williams, specifically regarding the former Chalet Chevrolet building on 304th St., was heard at a special meeting on Monday, July 8, 2024. At that meeting Council decided to turn down the opportunity to prohibit future drive-thrus and gas stations, opting instead to request staff to prepare a report detailing how to regulate them.

That report, a 131-page document entitled “Regulatory Options for Future Drive-Through and Gas Station Developments,” is complete and available to view in its entirety at kimberley.ca.

Planner Scott-Iversen presented four options to council:

1. Direct staff to prepare zoning bylaw amendments as proposed in this report

[recommended option];

2. Specify regulatory preferences that are more permissive and direct staff to

prepare zoning bylaw amendments;

3. Specify regulatory preferences that are more restrictive and direct staff to

prepare zoning bylaw amendments; or

4. Defer decision and request additional information or discussion at a future meeting.

Kimberley currently has three drive-thrus: the Timber Hitch in Marysville, the Sully Liquor Store and A&W. There were four before the Koffee Kan closed.

Scott-Iversen noted the proposed direction for drive-through regulations primarily focus on Zoning Bylaw No. 1850, specially the automobile and commercial zones, C-3, as it is already tailored for car-related businesses.

"It affects most parcels that are abutting Highway 95A," she explained. "With these characteristics in mind, it lends well to bylaw amendments that aim to expand and clarify the scope of car-related uses within the existing zoning framework." 

Proposed regulations for drive-thrus generally concern the location, type and landscaping and screening requirements. Regulating the location is important, and proposed location regulations are intended to help manage potential impacts on adjacent properties, pedestrian-oriented character Kimberley commercial areas and developer expectations.

"These regulations work within the city’s existing zoning framework and would generally direct drive-thrus away from pedestrian focused areas," Scott-Iversen said. "This approach aims to minimize disruption to Kimberley’s commercial core while also providing clear requirements for this type of development." 

She noted the proposed amendments focus on drive-through restaurants specifically, as these have been the subject of recent development inquiries and thus there is an identified need to address this use. 

The proposed gas station regulations were designed to strike a balance between meeting current transportation needs with decarbonization trends and public health considerations. 

"One of the proposed regulations is introducing a minimum separation between gas stations and more sensitive uses — this is partially in response to Health Canada’s 2023 report on the health risks of benzene emission exposure," Scott-Iversen said, adding staff were currently recommending a 150-metre separation from schools, daycares, seniors and special needs housing, and those could also be expanded with council direction.

Another option would be to cap the number of gas stations in Kimberley city limits to six, currently Kimberley has five.

Councillor Maguire, the first to speak in an extensive discussion, said that while he doesn’t have a strong opinion regarding the gas station development, he said that “our town is unique, we’re not a pitstop, we’re not on a main highway to anywhere and we’ve got something special here.”

"My aim is to embrace the charm and to engage with the community and stay connected, thoughtful and keep things with that local feel," he said. "We have a responsibility to protect what our community has and this change would really allow developers to target drive-though restaurants on existing C-3 zone lots without any really checks or balances coming from council, because the zoning change would already be in place if we’re going to go this route, I would suggest creating a new zone entirely." 

He added he doesn't support having these types of zones in Kimberley's zoning at all, saying he believes drive-thrus favour "large corporations with major brand recognition and huge market budgets and supply chains designed for high volume fast food service models."

By restricting drive-thrus he said it would "level the playing field" for local business, while not stopping those sorts of businesses from setting up shop in Kimberley, without using a drive-through model.

"People come to our town for its charm, we need to encourage and protect businesses that attract people to our community and enhance the appeal of the destination." 

He added drive-thrus divert business away from Kimberley's downtown core, and said Kimberley would not be the first in western Canada to implement such restrictions, citing major centres like Vancouver, Calgary and Kelowna that have partial restrictions, and Saanich, Nelson and Ladysmith that have full bans. 

Councillor Fox, said she’s not anti-business, but that she is pro small business, echoing several points Councillor Maguire made, namely that this would “lay the groundwork for large multi-national chain corporations to be able to come in and set up shop.” She was in support of the “most restrictive option possible.”

Councillor Cairns also echoed Maguire, citing the information garnered from the survey, community feedback and OCP policies that “all support amendments prohibiting future drive-thrus and gas stations.”

She voted for the most restrictive options for both, citing as her concerns for more gas stations as being “environmental, health risks, decarbonization trends, over-saturation of our local market and high cost of remediation of contaminated lands.”

Councillor McBain said he agreed with all the rationales provided by the prior three councillors, saying he agrees that most likely, a new drive-through development would be a big corporation, but that that is not a 100 per cent certainty. 

"I like to have a little bit of flexibility, as much flexibility as possible, in case there’s that business out there that fits into this and still meets the ideological views that we have," he said.

Councillor Roberts sided with McBain, echoing that she agrees with the values-based arguments raised by the four opposed councillors, but said that the current council needs to be "very cautious of the fact that we’re putting something in place for future councils to have to deal with." 

She was for having some flexibility and said businesses survive if people support them, and die if they don't. 

"Let’s not tie two hands behind [potential new business owners'] back, let’s give them an opportunity to see what the community’s like and plant a business here that will meet the needs of the community and not have to be so restrictive that they can’t even get going." 

Finally, McCormick began his comments by referring to the previous week's special meeting of council, during which council heard that in order to maintain Kimberley's roughly $1 billion in assets, it needs to spend $15 million a year to maintain them, and that it is currently spending roughly half that. On top of that, the City has depleting reserves. 

He said that Kimberley can't afford to restrict anything, and as Councillor Maguire had mentioned, the majority of new businesses would have to come before council for zoning changes anyways. 

He also highlighted that Kimberley's population has grown by around 2000 people in the last 10 to 12 years, with no new significant commercial development, and that the city gets "significant bleed to Cranbrook" to make use of the services they have there. This pertains to Kimberley's tourism industry, its single most important economic driver, as Kimberley doesn't have the necessary accomodation. 

"We have precious few options for taxpayer relief," McCormick said. "We can not close that gap by taking residential tax increases. So we have a number of things we’re trying to balance here and what we want is to provide flexibility and balance that allows councils of the day to make informed decisions on what’s in the best interest of the community.

"What is in the best interest of the community is much broader than how we feel emotionally about the place we live."

He credited staff with taking what was a “very contentious situation” and turning it into something everyone can work with.

The proposed bylaw changes that would allow for flexibility around drive-thrus and potentially adding one more gas station were defeated 4-3, with Councillors Maguire, Fox Dunnebacke and Cairns against and McBain, Roberts and McCormick in favour.

A formal bylaw will be brought back for consideration of first reading at a future meeting.

 



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