White Rock council has decided to cut some red tape for a West Beach business \u2013 knowing that it will likely establish a precedent for many others.<\/p>\n
Stephen and Jenann Preddy, owners of Bean & Berry Caf\u00e9 (1122 Vidal St.), came before council on Feb. 9 to ask for a \u201cmodest adjustment\u201d to their signage to create slightly better on-street visibility for their business.<\/p>\n
They were asking to put a sign that reads \u2018caf\u00e9\u2019 into an existing sign box on the side of the building, former site of the Galaxie brew pub, and a small \u2018entrance\u2019 sign to mark the business\u2019s recessed doorway.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about promotion, it\u2019s about clarity and way-finding,\u201d Jenann Preddy said, while Stephen Preddy said online reviews have mentioned that the caf\u00e9 is not easy to locate.<\/p>\n
Under the existing bylaw, the request counts as two signs where only one would be allowed, necessitating a variance to the city\u2019s signage bylaw.<\/p>\n
Coun. Elaine Cheung warned that going against the existing signage bylaw to grant the Preddys\u2019 request would open the floodgates for signage requests from other White Rock businesses.<\/p>\n
But a majority of council \u2013 feeling the bylaw is long overdue for an overhaul \u2013 ultimately decided to approve a motion from Coun Christopher Trevelyan, seconded by Coun. Anthony Manning, to initiate a variance to allow the Preddys their signs.<\/p>\n
After hearing the Preddys\u2019 plea, Trevelyan noted that city staff have had \u201cabsolutely no choice but to follow the bylaw as written.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSaying that, I know myself \u2013 and going back, when Coun. Manning was on council (before) \u2013 we\u2019ve been asking for four years to have that sign bylaw to be reviewed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know there\u2019s been a lot of issues along the way with SSMUH (provincial small-scale, multi-unit housing legislation) and COVID, so I understand why it\u2019s not been done,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that sign bylaw should be changed, modified and reviewed. I know that the timeline of a business is not the same as the timeline of government at any level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very much in favour of just supporting what you\u2019re saying, and get that sign done. It\u2019s a pre-existing structure, it\u2019s not a structural issue \u2026 putting a few more words above your doorway and on a new piece of glass is not an unreasonable request in these tight economic times.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Cheung, while noting she supports the caf\u00e9, and that a review of the sign bylaw is among council\u2019s list of strategic priorities, said she could not support the motion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been approached by multiple businesses that all want to change the signs \u2013 Grounds & Greens; PR Fitness \u2013 they\u2019re hidden behind (a restaurant). (They) put a sign on the sidewalk and got told off. Maya\u2019s Ice Cream \u2013 I\u2019ve got so many businesses that have come to me and asked me to change the bylaws.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve said you\u2019ve got to wait, because if we give (a) one-off, then everybody\u2019s going to come. If I give it to you and I give it to someone else who comes as a delegation, then it\u2019s a mish-mash. Then (when) we change the bylaw it\u2019s not consistent at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to be fair to every business. I hear what you\u2019re saying and I wish that, as a council, we would stick to our strategic priorities instead of adding things to it, so that we can move forward on our plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coun. David Chesney noted that if council had not heard from many businesses before, they were about to hear from them, after the meeting.<\/p>\n
However, he said, \u201cI\u2019m fully in support of the motion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time we review the sign bylaw, we\u2019ll be older and greyer,\u201d he observed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything moves far too slow,\u201d he told the Preddys. \u201cYou people have made a yeoman effort to turn that business completely around. Maybe we open a can of worms. This is not a knock on staff \u2013 it\u2019s a plain and simple matter (that) everything moves so slow. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIn today\u2019s environment of trying to make a business work I think we should stand behind of you and not in front of you,\u201d Chesney added.<\/p>\n
In answer to a question from Mayor Megan Knight, Stephen Preddy confirmed that they had asked staff about a getting a variance but had been told that it would take from a few months to as much as a year to get it approved.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been challenging to get a level of consistency and modernization from that bylaw,\u201d Coun. Bill Lawrence said, adding that the review process does need to be accelerated.<\/p>\n
The motion passed, with Cheung, Knight and Lawrence opposed.<\/p>\n
Knight also offered a positive suggestion, echoed by Cheung, that the couple could talk to the city\u2019s arts and culture committee about commissioning a thematic mural on the side of the building.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is part of the phase 2,\u201d Stephen Preddy said, noting that the business has not yet had its grand opening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"White Rock council has decided to cut some red tape for a West Beach business \u2013 knowing that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-486797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}