Former Victoria mayoral candidate Rob Reid said on the local CBC morning radio show this morning the city didn't do enough “due diligence” on the zoning that allows a bottle depot to operate across the street from one of his running shoe stores.
Oddly enough, way back in October when he was campaigning during his failed bid to be mayor, Reid said the city spends way too much time on zoning.
“Life's too short, so I get a little concerned, and that's why some of us are running, we get concerned with 60 percent of council time being spent on re-zoning, and that's an issue,” he said in an interview. “I'm not going to sit in that council chambers and spend 60 percent of my time talking about zonings, so something's going to have to change.”
But isn't that what city councils do? “I think we need to discuss variances, but we can't be spending 60 percent of our time on zoning. If we ask the typical citizen what their priorities are living in Victoria, I don't think zoning is going to be in the top three.”
The bottle depot has been at the corner of Vancouver and View Streets for many years, though staff could not say when it opened. It is in an area with some of Victoria's lowest rents, though in recent years higher priced developments have been built.
The depot is heavily used by people scrounging a living by returning containers for a deposit. Reid said on the radio he believes it should be somewhere else.
As it happens, the city sent the depot a letter last week saying it is in contravention of the existing zoning rules. The area is mixed use residential and retail, a city official said, and bottle depots are considered an industrial use. The depot is yet to respond, the official said.
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.
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kristye
3 years ago
I live three blocks from
I live three blocks from that intersection and that bottle depot is tidy and inoffensive. It's also incredibly busy. Maybe because it's just been there for so long that I don't see any problem with it continuing. What exactly is Reid's problem with it? Sure it's a magnet for poorer residents and homeless but moving the bottle depot isn't going to remove street people from downtown.
G West
3 years ago
Agree completely Kristye
I don't think it's had any effect whatsoever on his thriving business.
In fact, the street people who bring their laden shopping carts there every day are businessmen and women too...doing their best to get by in a city that would really rather they all disappear.
JStog
3 years ago
Bottle depot Industral use ???
A bottle depot is no more of an industrial use than the corner store selling the bottles filled.
Retail stores accept bottles returns too. Better rezone them industrial as well. Has the city sent them letters??
VicRK
3 years ago
Been to the bottle depot more
I've been to that bottle depot a lot more than his running store. Maybe it should move.
freebear
3 years ago
Sour Grapes
He is just sour because he lost the race for Mayor; he could have raised the issue before running (pun intended) for Mayor!
kristye
3 years ago
There's also at least four
There's also at least four abandoned lots within a block radius of the bottle depot and the running store. Doesn't it make sense to spend your time as a business to try and attract new business to unused property before trying to shut down your neighbour? Is the prosperity of the intersection really going to be improved by removing the only other business there?
Reid's lack of understanding regarding zoning and his inability to look farther than across the street makes me quite glad I did not vote for him. The corny election signs he used were enough of a turn off for me at the time.