Two big thumbs-ups and one big thumbs-down were dished out by council to two conditional use applications and one variation request at their June 21 meeting.
NCN Development Corporation’s application to rezone the former Liquor Mart on Thompson Drive as a bus depot was unanimously supported by councillors.
“It’s something we have a history of doing,” said city manager Anthony McInnis during a public hearing on the application prior to the council meeting itself. He later added that the conditions of the approval were the same as those that had been included in conditional use approvals for two other bus depots, both along Selkirk Avenue, within the past couple of years.
Coun. Les Ellsworth said he was happy to see the vacant former liquor store being put to good use.
Also receiving unanimous support was an application by Men Are Part of the Solution (M.A.P.S.) to allow a social service facility as a permitted use in a medium-density residential area. The conditional zoning is for 13 and 15 Stanford Bay, which M.A.P.S. is seeking to turn into transitional housing for women.
M.A.P.S. president Oswald Sawh told council that the facility will be similar to Phoenix House, which is transitional housing for men next door, at 9 and 11 Stanford Bay. Residents must commit to sober living and will have access to counselling and programming aimed at reuniting them with their children, families and communities as a stepping stone to finding permanent housing. The project is being funded by the federal and provincial governments.
“There’s such a need for transitional housing in our city,” said deputy mayor Kathy Valentino. “I think this is a great thing and we need more of it.”
Council was also unanimous in its rejection of an application by Raj Dhillon, owner of the new Super 8 hotel on Thompson Drive North, where the Interior Inn used to stand, for a variation allowing a chain link fence, which has already been put up, around the property.
Dhillon said his contractor was unaware that chain link fence wasn’t allowed along Thompson Drive under the city’s zoning bylaw when it was put up, which was done without obtaining a permit. The owner said the fence provides security and prevents pedestrians from using the property as a shortcut.
“If we have to take this fence down it will further delay opening our hotel,” said Dhillon, noting that the property around apartment buildings near the corner of Thompson Drive North and Mystery Lake Road, adjacent to the Best Western Hotel, already had a chain link fence.
That fence has wooden posts and rails and chain link fencing. When its erection was approved by council in 2011, one of the conditions imposed by council was that the fence be something more visually pleasing than chain link.
“We have requested other people in our term to follow these rules,” said Coun. Brian Lundmark.
Coun. Jeff Fountain said that, although the fence around Super 8 is not an eyesore, consistency was important.
“My concern isn’t necessarily the fence but the consistency,” he said.
