Baby Grayson refuses to give up page 3
SPOTL SPOT SPOTLIGHT LIGHT $1.10 Includes TAX
The Similkameen
Volume 65 Issue 22
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
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We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Andrea DeMeer
Police say excessive speed caused this logging truck roll over on Highway 3 west of Princeton Monday morning. The accident occurred at 10:00 a.m. and sent the driver to hospital with neck injuries.
Battle brews between businesses and town Andrea DeMeer Spotlight Staff
A battle over zoning is heating up in Princeton’s business community, as a group of property owners grapples with zoning changes they say are hitting them hard in the pocketbook. Last week Princeton CAO Rick Zerr announced the town will undertake a public review of the Official Community Plan (OCP) in 2016, which could be the first step in reversing zoning decisions that changed the designation of 27 industrial properties to residential use in November 2013. In an interview with The Spotlight Zerr said the OCP review is reopened routinely every few years, and is not coming about because of recent letters to the editor in the newspaper, or because of complaints the town has received from business property owners.
“I don’t care what’s motivated it,” said Susan Robinson, who owns Ace Hardware with her husband Pete on Burton Avenue. “I think what counts is that they are taking a second look. It’s a little slower than we would like to have it nonetheless.” Robinson said the municipality did not do enough 18 months ago to notify property owners about the now-controversial zoning changes. “I said [to the municipality] you may have met the letter of the law but you have not met the needs of the community. Every business owner I spoke to was not aware of the changes except the former mayor.” For some property owners, like Scott Cerny, an OCP review in the future is not enough to address the financial damages threatened by the 2013 zoning changes. He said he stands to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars because his property was rezoned
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from industrial to residential. “I’ve got a piece of property right now that’s advertised for sale but there’s no way anyone is going to look at buying it because it will be residential for selling.” The property, on Burton Avenue, is the former location of a feed and seed business, which Cerny sold in 2012 and is currently leased to the Ministry of Transportation. As an industrial property the land was worth approximately $230,000, but Cerny estimates it would net only $30,000 on the residential market. Under the 2013 zoning by law, a property can only maintain its industrial designation as long as it is attached to the existing business. “It’s a touchy subject when you talk about people’s investments,” he said. “I’m not waiting for 2016. I think we need to get legal action happening, personally.” The seeds of the current conflict were
sown in 2008, when council drafted a new OCP designating industrial properties along Burton Avenue, Grande Avenue, Similkameen Avenue, Stoat Street, Old Hedley Road and Highway 3 as residential. Those intentions were implemented five years later in a zoning bylaw. According to Zerr – despite the fact that the town advertised each step of the process as required by BC legislation – no one from the business community came forward with concerns. “You would think they would be a little more engaged in the process.” Zerr said there were at least two public meetings held to discuss the OCP, and the zoning bylaw was passed at a public hearing where four or five people from the community attended. While Zerr was not on town staff in 2008 he said he believes council wanted to change continued page nine
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