At his state of the city address on Thursday, April 29, Mayor Don McCormick, following his presentation, opened the floor to questions and addressed what he called “the elephant in the room,” that being the proposed zoning amendment to allow for a new family restaurant and service station in Marysville.
READ MORE: Proposal for restaurant and service station development in Marysville jumps first hurdle
The current property is the existing site in the Marysville Mini Storage, beside the Marysville Fire Hall and across the highway from Bootleg Gap. It is currently zoned M1, a heavy-industrial zoning. Potential uses under that zoning for the owner of that land are industrial, such as truck terminals, storage and sale of construction materials, tire manufacturing, a salvage yard and so on.
READ MORE: Mayor McCormick’s 2023 State of the City presentation: Part 1
The rest of the Marysville business park is also, and has been for many years, zoned heavy industry.
McCormick said that Planning have a project to essentially consolidate that area, getting rid of the heavy side of it, allowing for a more modest light industrial zoning, which at this point doesn’t exist.
“The decision before council is a land use decision,” McCormick said. “We’re not talking about the project, what the proponent is intending to do, the land use decision is: is commercial an appropriate zone for this property.
“Clearly you can’t disconnect that from what the proposal is, but you need to remember it’s just a proposal and what it ends up being at the end of the day could be very different. It could be the same or it could be very different. At this stage of the game, zoning is the single biggest priority and that is the decision that is before council.”
Of the around 30 parcels of land in that area, McCormick said there are about 15 owners, with several businesses, including the GM dealership and Marysville Storage, that own multiple parcels.
WATCH:
McCormick said that a few years ago he contacted the owners of all of those properties and asked if they’re prepared to sell. He said that “down to a person they would love to sell,” because building in there during the current state of repair and lack of services, wasn’t possible.
There is now a plan in place to get that land upgraded.
All of them are privately owned, limiting what can or should be done. The land owner chooses what they want to invest in, McCormick said, not unlike when a person buys a lot and gets to decide what sort of home they put on it, within the confines of the zoning and building requirements.
READ MORE: Kimberley Mayor talks need for development
It’s the same thing with light industrial or commercial land, whoever owns it gets to choose what it is they build within their area of expertise.
A resident in the crowd asked, “in the letters to the editor, a good number of people have said ‘we don’t want large commercial.’ So why are we thinking of rezoning it for large commercial?”
“Council doesn’t make decisions based on letters to the editor,” McCormick replied. “We don’t make decisions based upon what’s being propagated on Facebook — these are channels of communication where people choose a particular channel to provide some feedback. They don’t represent the entire community.
“Council needs to consider the entire community and the best interest of the entire community, not what somebody does or doesn’t want. And that’s not being disrespectful that’s a fact. And quite honestly if we pick and choose who we wish to be here, investors will not come.”
He said if Kimberley starts to pick and choose what they do or do not want, the City will lose all investment in the community, driving residential taxes even higher.
Another question from the audience was basically, if we take one, won’t it then snowball and Kimberley will end up “looking like the Cranbrook strip?”
“It’s not that we’ll take you, it’s their land,” McCormick said. “They already own it, so it’s not a question of us taking them. And I think examples of the Cranbrook strip, I disagree with that. Because there’s only six pieces of property along that highway, all the way from the recycling from the Marysville storage, six parcels that’s it. It’s not a Cranbrook strip.”
“At the end of the day, Council isn’t there to stop things from happening, Council is there to help make things happen and it’s really complicated. All of these pieces tie together and if you take one in isolation of everything else you are going to end up with unintended consequences and that’s why we go through the detailed process that we do in Council to get to an informed decision.”
Someone asked McCormick what he wants Kimberley to be known for, suggesting Council “actively and specifically court the kinds of things that reflect the ethos of the community,” and expressed concerns for a business like McDonald’s “swallowing up” local restaurants.
McCormick said he felt that having a McDonald’s would not brand Kimberley and reiterated that the decision before council is a zoning decision and that at this point talking about whether or not a particular brand is liked or good for the community is “counterproductive.”
“When we talk about development, nothing is simple, and not everybody is going to like every single development and it’s why we have a process at Council that we go through, an objective process,” McCormick said. “We’re going to follow the process and at the end of it, the right decision will come out. There’s seven of us on Council, I don’t get to make the call, I get one vote just like everybody else.
“There seems to be a feeling that I am promoting this particular development, I am not. What I’m promoting is the conversion of the industrial land to a commercial. I don’t care who’s there. I think all of those properties along the highway … should be commercial and that’s what the decision is on the table.”
Finally, a resident who said she was born and raised here and helped build the campground, golf courses, and ski hill — assets she said the City bought that allowed it to become a tourist economy — spoke up and said that Kimberley has changed and “people hate change.”
“My dad is still alive and he’s for it. The biggest thing that I took from the editorial, I am overweight, I do not sit and eat there and it really bothered me and it bothers a lot of people. The health conscious aspect of it. Are we a bunch of alcoholics here because we have all these breweries and wineries?
“We’ve got to look at growth in Kimberley, I will live and die here, my dad will die here and we are exited about the growth. I wasn’t too happy when we changed the variance, but it’s the people that make Kimberley, it’s not a McDonald’s.”
This was met with applause and then McCormick concluded the meeting by saying:
“I think the bottom line is there’s a big dialogue going on on what’s it all about and that dialogue is healthy. Debate is healthy. And it’s going to continue for the next few weeks and I look forward getting this forward to the public hearing.”
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter