A proposed gas bar at 1708 Thompson Cres. got a stone-cold reception from North Battleford city council Monday.
Council voted unanimously not to approve the discretionary land use application for the development, after about 30 residents from the area expressed their opposition to the project.
The application was for a combined gas bar and convenience store. As city planner Ryan Mackrell outlined at the meeting, the proposed development had issues right from the start.
A big issue was the proposed location near several surrounding residential properties. The gas bar was going to be placed to the east of Foodland and southeast of North Battleford Comprehensive High School. While the proposed location was zoned C2 - Neighbourhood Commercial, the surrounding residential area is zoned R2 - Low Density Zoning District.
There were other issues. The applicant did not have a franchise lined up for the gas bar – it was “more of an idea at this time,” Mackrell said.
Not only was no franchise lined up, there were also no site plans submitted to show where the gas bar and convenience store would actually be located, according to a city memo from Mackrell circulated at Monday’s meeting.
Administration had urged the proponent to hold off until there were further developments but “he wasn’t interested,” Mackrell said. The application process then went ahead.
As part of the process, the city sent a mailout to the public in a 75-meter radius to notify residents of the proposal and encourage feedback.
The negative feedback came back “pretty much immediately, which was anticipated,” Mackrell said.
About 27 letters against the proposal were circulated to council from surrounding residents, but Mackrell also noted a few more trickled in just before the council meeting to bring the number to around 30.
Mackrell said the property owner had been notified in advance they would probably receive this type of feedback. No letters came in that were in favour of the development.
In general, the correspondence cited concerns about traffic, environmental issues including gasoline odors, and decreased property values.
Apart from the public opposition, Mackrell’s memo to council made it clear that administration had issues with the application as well.
The development didn’t meet the city’s own development standards and preferred criteria for convenience stores, as it was not located on a corner lot and the residential amenity will be “unreasonably compromised,” according to the memo from Mackrell.
“Administratively, this doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Mackrell told council.
He recommended council deny the application, and councillors saw no reason to disagree.
It was the proposal for a gas bar that was the main stumbling block for council, as a convenience store might have gotten the go-ahead. Councillor Greg Lightfoot had noted there had already been a convenience store in the area before.
“That probably would be allowed, the convenience store. It’s just the gas bar I think is the biggest contentious issue,” Lightfoot said. He agreed that he couldn’t support the application.
Councillor Kelli Hawtin asked what commercial enterprises would be permitted in the C2 Neighbourhood Commercial zone.
Mackrell responded those could include stores, restaurants, small retail outlets and those types of uses, but not large “traffic-generated” uses that would attract vehicular attention to the area.
