A 'MARYSVILLE MCDONALDS' UPDATE + Q&A W/ CITY COUNCILLOR SUE CAIRNS | MOUNTOWN JOURNAL
Intro/Outro words by Jeremy/@HI54LOFI | May 11, 2023If, like me, you happen to live in (or near) the charming little mountain town of Kimberley, British Columbia, the hot local topic du jour the last month or so has been the proposed ‘Marysville McDonalds’ (which, because we’re in North America, would also be a combination gas station, because of course).
Sure, we have other local topics that local people prefer to talk about in casual conversation (for example: isn’t it quite nice to live around all this natural beauty, eh?), BUT, no topic has been quite as ‘hot’ or as ‘du jour’ lately as the recent push & pushback involved with where on the fence you stand in regards to whether another billion-dollar corporate chain coming to the neighbourhood is just a short-term gain for a few, while locking those that actually live & work here into a long-term commitment to further unsustainable hierarchical ‘progress’ — OR — whether this is more one of those “ugggh… stop complaining about the inevitableness of corporate consumer capitalism and just don’t buy any McNuggets if you don’t like this billion-dollar corporation setting up shop 20 minutes from another one of their franchises because something something economy” situations… or maybe it’s a combination of a bunch of hard to articulate feelings/concerns/realities?
Of course, things can often get a bit blurry about what is actually going on, especially with the way that social media allows for people to fire off selective messaging to their selective echo chambers of friends/fans & agreeable people who don’t want to be considered ‘rude’ for publicly expressing concerned counter-arguments to acknowledged societal issues that seem to always fall outside the realm of ‘Things Worth Seriously Considering’, which is why I’ve been trying to use my little internet platform/s to trigger conversations locally that go a bit deeper than the usual surface-level social media interactions of ‘point -> counterpoint -> defensive counter-counterpoint that doesn’t address the previous counterpoint (if there’s a reply at all)’. Because there’s an internet that exists outside of whatever the algorithms show us during the 24hr shelf life each social media post is given, and you can take things a bit slower once you get out here on the URLs .
As for how we got to this specific blog post, well, it was sometime after sharing a local business owner’s ‘open letter’ on the 95EH Tumblr back in mid-April + then spending time trying to engage in the ‘potentially 🌶️ spicy’ comments section of that post on the 95EH Facebook and the 95EH Instagram (which is an involvement that came about organically after I first shared Mayor McCormick’s FB post about the initial ‘Marysville McDonalds’ news on the 95EH Facebook & the 95EH Instagram and started having conversations with others, online & in-person, about the way that the in-favour messaging seemed to be getting rolled out), and then City Councillor Sue Cairns reached out about the importance of continuing the conversation/s on this still very not ‘done deal’ proposal (ps: the Kimberley Bulletin has also published some thoughtfully worded ‘open letters’ from concerned locals HERE and HERE + Healthy Kimberley has also posted a letter in opposition of the proposal).
So, what better way to help clear up some of the divisive confusion than with a Q&A update from not only one of the Kimberley City Councillors who has a vote/say on the matter (and who has a better understanding of how the proposal actually gets decided on by council, outside the battlegrounds of public/personal opinions that the rest of us tend to be contained to), but Sue Cairns is also the one City Councillor who was not able to be present at the February council meeting when the ‘Marysville McDonalds’ was first brought up publicly to discuss (and therefore didn’t get a chance to speak on the matter at the time).
And on that note, here is City Councillor Sue Cairns to answer some questions and help clear up any confusion about the current status of the ‘Marysville McDonalds’ proposal (which, again, is not a ‘done deal’ as is sometimes the feeling people have been expressing):
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A Short Q&A W/ Kimberley City Councillor Sue Cairns To Help Add More Context To The ‘Marysville McDonalds’ Proposal (as of May 11, 2023)
Q1: What is the current status of the 'Marysville McDonalds' proposal?
Sue Cairns: At this point, the City Planning Department is waiting for feedback from the BC Ministry of Transportation. Once received, a second Staff Report will be brought to City Council for consideration and to set a date for a Public Hearing.
For those interested in how a Public Hearing would work, an Orientation to Public Hearings was held on April 17 Committee of the Whole Meeting — here’s the link to the City’s Youtube in case you’d like to watch that.
Q2: How can community members provide input to the Mayor & Council?
Sue Cairns: Three ways:
1. Speak to us personally. Reach out to Councillors and the Mayor individually to help us understand your perspectives. If you don’t have our phone numbers then email us to arrange a call or meeting: mayor@kimberley.ca; kdunnebacke@kimberley.ca; sroberts@kimberley.ca; scairns@kimberley.ca; wmcguire@kimberley.ca; jmcbain@kimberley.ca, sroyer@kimberley.ca
2. Email your input to all of Mayor & Council at: M+C@Kimberley.ca; cc: SSommerville@Kimberley.ca; cc: MLeroux@Kimberley.ca; cc: TPollock@Kimberley.ca
3. Most Importantly, speak at the Public Hearing (date still to be determined - so watch the city website and media for an announcement). I will also post the date on my personal FB page. Written submissions can also be made at the Public Hearing.
Q3: For those a bit out of the loop, can you please break down the general gist of what the 'Marysville McDonalds' proposal is, SPECIFICALLY from a "this is how city council works" perspective (as opposed to the 'community grape vine' version of how the general gist often gets around for stuff like this)?
Sue Cairns: Sure. So first of all, this is a much broader decision than a "yes" or "no" to McDonalds! This is a land use decision.
The decision the City is considering right now is whether to change the current zoning for the subject parcel from Industrial use to Commercial use to allow for a proposed future redevelopment for a drive-through restaurant, gas station, car wash and retail. (EV chargers are also mentioned but without commitment).
The City does not prescribe what businesses go where but rather strategically shape how our city evolves through policy, planning (Official Community Plan (OCP)), zoning and regulation. Zoning is a really important tool and it's up to the private land owner to work with the constraints of the zoning, and eventually the development permit process. Consequently, it's a bit abstract at this point.
But there are some things we know for certain and that is that this decision is on whether or not to rezone the land from Industrial to Commercial use based on this proposal for a drive-through restaurant, gas station, car wash and retail in the location of Marysville Storage. To accommodate this, an amendment to our Official Community Plan (OCP) and zoning bylaws would be necessary. It is a land use zoning decision.
The proposal is still in early stages of review. Council approved first reading of the proposed bylaw amendments at the Feb. 13, 2023 Regular Council Meeting.
Currently, the date is not known for Council’s consideration of a second reading or scheduling a public hearing (where comments from community members on the proposal will be heard by Council). When a Public Hearing is scheduled, a notice of public hearing will be published in the Kimberley Bulletin and also posted to the City website (public notices).
For more information and background on the proposal you can:
1. View the Staff Report to Council in the Feb. 13 Regular Council Meeting Agenda - go to item G.1.1 (note: this link should take you directly to the PDF of the staff report), and
2. Watch the Youtube video of the Feb. 13 Regular Council Meeting, including presentation from the proponent and staff, as well as Council discussion, starting at about 17:15 in the video:
Q4: Since you were not able to be present at the February 13th city council meeting where the 'Marysville McDonalds' proposal was first brought up, can you please share your thoughts on the proposal?
Sue Cairns: My view…
1st, is that these industrial lands are critical for Kimberley’s future - for the development of a sustainable economy. We have to expand our economy beyond the retail service sector, and especially beyond restaurants, gas stations and car washes! If we had more available land, this rezoning proposal would be less of an issue, but if we rezone for this, then we trade off getting the things we need. It’s frivolous to say the least when Kimberley needs well paying jobs and light industry to diversify our economy and tax base (and help us not be a bedroom community).
A longer term view is critical to our future. Section 4.4 of our Official Community Plan provides Economic Development policy and it’s very clear that this proposal does not align. In addition, BC Chamber of Commerce policy is against the conversion of industrial lands because it compromises long term community economic development. And the City of Kimberley Staff Report speaks in depth to the importance of these lands in light of broader societal and economic needs as well direction developed with community in our Official Community Plan. I highly recommend digging into these documents if you have time.
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““While there are municipal benefits to redeveloping the subject properties for property tax purposes, the conversion of industrial land is an approach that prioritizes immediate fiscal concerns over long-term outcomes that increase employment or bolster local innovations.” ”
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Sue Cairns: Let’s not trade off long term community economic development and well being for the much narrower view of property tax purposes and one time development permit fees. We aren’t able to “grow” forever so let’s choose carefully.
On the topic of availability of industrial land, some are making comments that we have plenty of industrial land - we can just go somewhere else to meet our needs. Let’s unpack that. This land in Marysville industrial zone is the only industrial land that is not contaminated and it will also have sewer service soon which it has not had in the past. It will be much more attractive for investment once it has sewer service. The City has received a provincial grant to start building the sewer and work has to start by winter 2023 so it has to move forward soon. These lands are important.
The Benchlands are zoned “industrial” but they are contaminated and significant tax dollars have already been sunk into remediation with no results, and even if remediation were eventually successful (at what cost?), it would then be very costly to bring sewer service there. And of course it’s also necessary to figure out how to protect the Volksmarch on the Bench, one of the most gorgeous Rocky Mountain views.
Then, on the matter of diversification, not only does this proposal not contribute to diversifying our economy or tax base, it dilutes the existing market for restaurants and gas stations, which increases our risk.
This brings me to my 2nd point - lack of understanding of the implications.
We don’t have an assessment of impact to our existing investors (businesses) and economy of adding an alternate retail centre on the highway before the entrance to the existing downtown centres, where there are vacant spaces currently, and also of undermining existing business access to labour (we are in labour and housing crises).
We don’t have an assessment of the impacts to our sewer system, water system, efforts to shift to active transportation, strengthen local food systems, increasing self sufficiency, waste management and achieving sustainability and climate targets.
We don’t have the data to support an informed decision to rezone.
And 3rd, we lack policy and regulation on these land uses to guide where and how they may occur. For example, for an informed decision, we need to understand things such as:
1. for a new gas station:
-how far should it be set back from residences and schools given new findings on the carcinogens they release; -requirements for mitigating risk of contamination, and clean up; and,
-is adding new gas stations an appropriate use of land given the significant issues Kimberley already has with this source of carcinogens within proximity to residences; the fact that we are already over-served by gas stations (2.5x BC average), and are in transition to low carbon resilience, and given competing interests?
2. For new drive through restaurant:
- where is an appropriate location given extensive use of land for lining up in vehicles, impact on neighbours, lack of pedestrian friendliness, idling emissions, and is it an appropriate use of lands given competing interests?
3. Staff accommodation plan: For new restaurants with more than a certain number of staff, a plan for staff accommodation must be a consideration given we are in a labour, housing and affordability crisis and all businesses are operating severely understaffed and want to bring staff in from elsewhere, but most can't because they can’t house them.
Personally, I think that if our town wants a 3rd chain restaurant (we have Subway and A&W), then it should be required to fit in the existing retail area and follow signage bylaws, for more level competition with other businesses. It should not be given an auto mall along with it. This way we bring retail traffic into our retail areas and keep our industrial lands for economic development. Marysville has numerous vacant retail building spaces. Our industrial lands should not be rezoned for yet another restaurant, gas station and car wash. Finally, locating EV chargers well away from our existing retail centres does not make any sense. Other communities strategically locate EV chargers in the downtown core to provide easy access to unique amenities.
Q5: Any closing thoughts?
Sue Cairns: I have heard from a wide range of residents and businesses and look forward to hearing from many more. Retaining industrial lands for industrial and commercial uses that bring innovation, well paying jobs and investment in our community, and diversifies, rather than concentrating our tax base further into restaurants and gas stations, makes sense! It's a much bigger Q: where do we want to be in 5, 10, 25 years? Kimberley is a gem and full of brilliant people and natural assets. Investment that is attracted by our strengths, entrepreneurship and good planning for long term community economic development, aligns better with Kimberley’s long term well-being. This is the conversation I want to have.
In my view it would be negligent to rezone our only uncontaminated and soon-to-be serviced industrial lands for a drive through restaurant, gas station, car wash and retail (convenience store). We don’t have any data to support that it would help us besides tax collection that could be improved by an investment that would better serve the community’s long term interests.
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“The OBJECTIVE of Industrial Lands is to:“Support a robust and diversified economy by encouraging the development of industrial lands to support employment growth and expansion of innovative industrial uses, specialized manufacturing and processing, renewable energy, technology and knowledge-based businesses.””
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Please reach out if you would like to talk - in particular about community economic development and long term well-being. That’s broad!
I hope people will speak up at the Public Hearing.
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* MAY 26th EMAIL UPDATE FROM SUE CAIRNS *
The latest City Staff Report is here Staff Report - Marysville Rezoning Proposal. Recommendation on the Agenda is for a Public Hearing to be scheduled. Let Council know what you think of the approach (I recommend reading the staff report first).Public Input to Date — here is my own count, which corresponds to the staff report, however I have also included the total # of signatories:• Opposed: 65 letters (from 97 signatories). 2 Letters from Organizations (multiple signatories). 1 Petition from 190 signatories. Chamber of Commerce survey showing 89.3% of businesses have concerns (although participation rate was only around 23%).• In support: 3 letters in total and 2 were from the same person (2 signatories).• Neutral: 1 letter citing safety concerns at the highway turnoff location (1 signatory).The agenda for May 29, 2023 Regular Council Agenda is here: May 29 Regular Council Meeting Agenda (item G.2 is the Marysville Rezoning Proposal). I encourage residents to come to Council Meetings to observe and ask questions when possible.***************************************
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Ok, firstly, thank you City Councillor Sue Cairns for reaching out with an interest to not only engage on this topic, but to continue encouraging others to keep engaging as well (your considered & informative replies to my questions above are much appreciated)! Civic clarity + further conversation & debate is not only a good thing, but I’d argue that it’s an essential thing (ESPECIALLY for anyone who has concerns about our many and very often unaddressed societal issues).
So, if you are a local area human that has concerns/opinions that you don’t feel are being addressed on this issue, definitely go back up to Sue’s answer to question #2 for options for getting things out of your head/heart/gut and in front of the local area humans who were collectively voted in to deal with these community issues/decisions on our behalf at the municipal level (you can also reach out to me at ‘hey@95eh.ca’ if you think you might have something else that would make sense to share, #MarysvilleMcDonalds-related or not).
Because you could watch/listen to the portion of the recent State of the City Address (hosted by Kimberley Chamber @ Centre 64 on April 27th, 2023) that talks specifically about the ‘Marysville McDonalds’ proposal (including questions from the audience, which starts around the 1:14:00 mark), and you might also get the sense that it’s being implied that ‘not that many’ people are actually opposed to a McDonalds-GasStation-CarWash coming to Marysville (or how the ‘McDonalds-GasStation-CarWash of it all’ should not be a part of the conversation regarding the zoning change), so there’s an implication that the concerns shared so far are maybe not seen as substantial enough (June 1st update: it now appears that the only existing online video of the State of the City Address has been deleted from the Chamber’s Facebook page 🤔)…
…SO, if you have strong feelings about this ‘Marysville McDonalds’, especially if you don’t feel like your concerns/opinions are being reflected in the overall framing of the Pros & Cons of what this proposal going thru would mean for the future of not only Marysville & Kimberley, but for the future of this whole acknowledged ‘unceded Ktunaxa territory’ that we continue to live & play on (and develop), WELL, hopefully this blog post has left you with enough extra context to encourage your participation in the ongoing collective dialogue (in whichever ways you choose to participate — and just talking more about this stuff amongst each other counts too).
Because the future is built on our actions in the present, full stop (and there are so many RED FLAGS from our collective pasts that should be helping guide our current decisions, but we first have to stop excluding all the ‘inconvenient’ realities of a Late Stage Colonial/Imperial Capitalist system from our decision processes).
And that’s going to require more of us participating in ‘uncomfortable’ conversations that challenge surface-level status-quo thinking that doesn’t react well to being challenged in the middle of an infinite growth race on a finite planet — SO — here’s hoping that more of us are feeling up for the task at hand!
Because, with climate change tipping points predicted for THIS DECADE, and with thousands of unmarked Indigenous graves scattered around the continent from past decades of unchecked ‘development’ of corporate/capitalist interests, and with our always-rising living costs and never-rising wages for so many so-called “essential” workers (to go along with that gaslit-feeling of being told it’s all to do with anything other than the millions/billions in “profits” we have to hear about every quarter/year), and given that I could go on & on listing societal issues that everybody seems to be mostly aware of (if not already experiencing first-hand)… the task literally could not be more at hand than right now (and then every day going forward… because we can do better, because we know better).
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In closing, to paraphrase something the mayor said on Facebook earlier this month: there sometimes seems to be a broadly felt problem of people focusing more on ‘Me’ instead of ‘We’ in our society these days — I will just add that maybe this ‘Marysville McDonalds’ thing, what with all of its underlying interconnected concerns, maybe it’s a good catalyst for all of us to further unpack that ‘Me’ vs ‘We’ problem until we get closer to the roots, eh?
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JEREMY / @HI54LOFI
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