Image: City of Chilliwack / Chilliwack Councillor Bud Mercer has urged city staff to conduct extra consultation in relation to a proposed cannabis store on Young Road, near Elements Casino.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Cannabis store application

Chilliwack councillor urges city staff to consult with veterans over proposed cannabis store on Young Road

Oct 23, 2024 | 6:47 AM

CHILLIWACK — Chilliwack Councillor Bud Mercer is urging staff from the City of Chilliwack to conduct extra consultation with veterans groups in relation to a proposed cannabis store on Young Road near Elements Casino in Chilliwack.

Councillor Mercer made the comments during Tuesday’s meeting in which councillors were asked to consider a proposal that would rezone a portion of property at 8247 Young Road to allow the operation of a retail cannabis store within the existing business on site.

According to a staff report from City of Chilliwack planner Sean Yilmaz, the existing neighbourhood pub at 8247 Young Road, Wings Tap and Grill, will continue to operate within a remainder of the building.

When the City of Chilliwack created and implemented a C8 commerciaal zone for cannabis businesses, they took into effect potentially adverse community impacts of storefront cannabis by limiting inappropriate exposure to minors and avoiding an undesirable concentration of storefront cannabis retailers throughout the City’s commercial corridors. As a result, council approved a minimum 300-meter buffer requirement from schools, parks, playgrounds, supportive housing facilities that serve vulnerable youth, and other permitted cannabis retailers to mitigate these factors.

The proposed cannabis store is located within 300 meters of a nearby park, Sapper Park, which acts as more of a monument to veterans rather than a place to sit or for kids to enjoy a playground, as there are no facilities at the park. The applicant behind the proposed cannabis store had asked city staff to waive the 300-meter buffer requirement.

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Image: City of Chilliwack / Sapper Park, located near proposed cannabis retail store.

Councillor Mercer said at Tuesday’s meeting he wasn’t dead set against what was being proposed, but asserted local veterans should be consulted about the cannabis store application since the park belonged to them.

“I guess my question and concern is, how the veterans would accept that? I don’t see that they’ve been mentioned,” Mercer said. “It’s their park. I think this before this would be received, my support in any way, shape or form, I would have to be comfortable that our veterans association, whether it’s through Legion or Anavets, that there’s some sort kind of consultative program process with our veterans to ensure that they’re OK that their park, which is inside the 300-meter buffer, is being waived with what’s before us today.”

Gillian Villeneuve, director of planning for the City of Chilliwack, told Mercer city staff could certainly include his request for both the public hearing and the development variance permit application.

But Mercer wanted more details.

“What would that look like?” he asked. “We’re gonna reach out to an aged population and say if you have something to say, come to the meeting? It is their park, if it was next to the cenotaph, we would do something more. I’m just wondering what consultation with this group of people that may not be as mobile as the rest of the community would look like.”

Villeneuve said the consultation process with the public would be similar to any other public hearing or public information meeting.

“There would be opportunity for multiple ways to participate, whether that’s in-person in council chambers, through written correspondence, such as that,” she said.

Mercer said that might not be good enough to reach out to local veterans.

“I think staff have to act meet with them,” he said. “Many of them don’t have computers, so we’re asking them to send emails. Many of them aren’t mobile. You see them on crutches or with canes going into the Anavets or the Legion. I think it’s a special group of people in our community. We’re contemplating a variance permit affecting their park.”

Councillor Jason Lum said he could understand Mercer’s request, but wondered if this might set a norm moving forward.

Image: City of Chilliwack video / Councillor Jason Lum speaks during Tuesday’s council meeting.

“What I’d be concerned about is just that we’re not setting a precedent for all of the public hearings, that we have a procedural bylaw that we have to follow for our public hearings, so if we vary from what we’re doing, both in notice or any of the different rules that we have to follow, we would then have to do that for every public hearing,” Lum said.

Mayor Ken Popove said he understood Lum’s stance, but noted this is a very unique situation with veterans.

The rezoning application was sent back to staff for further review ahead of a possible public hearing on Tuesday, November 5.