Council should have fought harder for LCBO design

May 14, 2013 · 0 Comments

When I was on King council it was not often that Councillor Linda Pabst and I agreed, or at least not publicly. However, in the case of the Nobleton LCBO, Councillor Pabst has my full support for the statements attributed to her in the King Weekly Sentintel:
“Pabst pointed out that making allowances for the LCBO could open a can of worms. “We have to be aware that if we back down on this one we should be prepared to back down on any others,” she said.”
I recognize that there’s always a balance to be acheived. In this case between what we believe King’s villages should look like, and economic growth. But after spending years and hundreds of thousands of dollars creating plans and village design guidelines to ensure that our villages will have the character we want, it seems a shame to so quickly acquiesce to the developer and LCBO.
Do we need new business in King Township? Yes. This would definitely be a good thing. Do we need it at any cost ? I don’t believe so.
It’s not as if there isn’t already an LCBO location in King, and it’s not as if our residents aren’t accustomed to having to drive to shop. Asa a matter of fact, most of the residents of King drive significant distances to get what they want or need.
Personally, even taking the balance question in to account, I think council made the wrong decision on this one. As much as the residents may want an LCBO (which I’m not sure is 100% true), I think council should have held out to get compliance to the Village Design Guidelines. If this made the LCBO walk, so be it. As the village grows, other potential tenants will come along.
Jeff Laidlaw