The ongoing issue of expanding the Mennonite Community Closet was back - yet again - at North Battleford city council Monday night.
The Community Closet had sought to expand their store on 100th Street, but have been frustrated in their efforts due to city zoning bylaws preventing "second-hand stores" from setting up shop or expanding in the city's downtown C-1 zone.
The zoning restrictions had been targeted at pawn shops and other second-hand stores in the downtown core, with the charitable Mennonite Community Closet finding itself caught up in its restrictions as well. Their efforts to expand the retail portion of the operation at its current location have been so far frustrated due to the restrictions.
The issue came back to council Monday night in the form of a November 9 letter from the Clifford Holm law office on the Community Closet's behalf, seeking a "reasonable solution to their present circumstances."
The correspondence from Clifford Holm suggested that the city consider rezoning the MCC property to commercial C-5 from its current C-1 zone -- to allow it to fall within one of the permitted uses of the city as a second-hand store.
Holm suggested there are a number of instances where the city has allowed what is called "spot zoning" - changing the zoning designation of specific property from the predominant zoning of the property surrounding it. A number of examples were cited of properties in residential areas that were zoned commercial, citing Wally's Food Basket, Potter's House/Dental Office and the former Sunnyside Food Centre as some examples. He suggested going that route with the MCC location by changing it to a C-5 designation.
However, city planner Tim LaFreniere stated in a city memo dated Dec. 10 that this option had been discussed with council and "is in fact the least desirable from a Community Planning perspective."
He stated that spot zoning "almost always flies in the face of those broader strategies and bestows special privilege to properties so treated." He added that "spot zoning to accommodate the MCC and exclude other second hand stores amounts to nothing more than an attempt to distinguish the users of land from the use so permitted. The courts have been clear and the City has received legal opinions indicating that the City may not construct its land use bylaws in this way."
During Monday night's council meeting, councillor Rhonda Seidel, noted the issue was raised when she had previously run unsuccessfully for council four years earlier, said e wanted to see the issue "put to rest."
"What have we done to this point with the Mennonite Closet?" she asked, seeking a resolution to the whole issue.
LaFreniere said an application to permit the MCC to use the adjoining property as a warehouse was approved last year. As well, the city offered to approve a repair service for customers.
But LaFreniere said they have reviewed all the administration options regarding second-hand stores and at this time the status quo has remained the case," he said. The challenge, he said, is that the city has undertaken surveys with respect to the downtown core and the operation of second-hand stores there.
Even though the Mennonite Community Closet is a charitable organization, said LaFreniere, zoning involves the "use" of land, not the "users" of land.
"Council isn't able to make discretionary choices among the users," said LaFreniere, citing the legal opinions the city received on the issue.
The city's director of economic development Denis Lavertu pointed to efforts by the city to develop a downtown strategy to help resolve the issue - efforts that he acknowledged were taking time through surveys and interviews that were conducted.
A full report to discuss land uses in the downtown is due in the new year, said LaFreniere.
He also reaffirmed his thoughts that spot zoning was still not a viable option, as it would open the door to substantially different uses of the property in the future.
It was noted by coun. Grace Lang that Saskatoon had similar challenges to deal with involving its own Mennonite Closet as well as the Salvation Army. Those organizations had moved out of the inner-city, though LaFreniere noted Saskatoon was a somewhat different case because of the size of the retail spaces there.
In the end there was a lot of discussion, but the only vote taken on the matter was simply to receive the correspondence from the Holm law office on the MCC's request. There was also some direction to administration at the meeting that consideration be given in the downtown revitalization report and also through the official community plan to the whole issue of second hand stores downtown.
