Councillors in a Grind on Coffee Store Zoning

Friday, 22 March 2013 at 11:17

As reported on Heart FM, city council defeated a re-zoning motion for popular coffee retailer Personal Services Coffee. The Owner, Randy Hosick will meet with the city on Monday to discuss his future options, which include challenging council's decision to the Ontario Municipal Board, or applying for a temporary permit to allow the retail store to continue to operate out of a building zoned for industrial use. However, city councillors that spoke on the issue Thursday night didn't seem like they were inclined to be in support of bending the zoning rules. Here's what they had to say: Jim Northcott: "From what I understand the gentleman is asking for a 3-year extension without any intention of finding a new location or moving. But he has the intentions of staying there for the full 5-years of his lease. I'm not in favour of that. I doesn't meet zoning, it shouldn't have gone in there, unfortunately it did. I think if we allow him even a temporary 3-years and allow him to come back, we would be asking for a lot of trouble from a lot of landlords, and a lot of business people who are abiding by the rules." Paul Plant: "I will say both examples given for precedence in this regard (temporary permit) were completely different in the sense that they were relative to extending residential use in a residential zone. They were not for actually changing us in an industrial zone. To me, there's a major difference in that." Sandra Talbot: On e-mails she's received from the public on the issue: "The comments that they (public) were making known is that it's a great business. The people there run a great service. But I want them to know that's not what's in question. It's not their business, their ability to sell anything. It's about the rules and how they apply about where you can set up and do a business." Bill Bes: "We are elected as a council by the people of this community to make sure we apply all the rules in a fair and square manner, and it applies to everybody. What we're basically saying to everybody is you have to do your due diligence, you have to follow due process, and the rules apply to everybody. If you actually ignore that in one or two cases, you really open up a floodgate and people are saying 'Why do we bother applying? Why do we have licenses? Why do we have permits? Why do we stick to zoning rules and regulations?'"