Expansion of the BBK Bottle Depot will go ahead, despite the overwhelming protest of residents in the area.
After a three-hour public hearing Monday night, city council approved rezoning of the two residential lots adjacent to BBK Bottle Depot. The lots are currently vacant and frequently used as a parking lot. In the past they have been used for storing recycling bins.
BBK owner Austin Kim plans to use the lots to build a large recycling facility, then convert the current building to a warehouse facility.
"BBK is an industrial business that does not belong in that neighbourhood," area resident Ron Gobin said. "It's too much of the wrong thing in the wrong place."
Increased traffic, crime, improper storage of materials on the site, litter, noise and smell from the site were raised as concerns by the 16 people who attended the public hearing to speak against the proposal. An additional four area residents wrote letters opposing the development.
Two letters and two presenters spoke in favour of the proposal - neither of the presenters in favour of the proposal lived in the area.
Gobin presented council with a series of photos showing old pallets and paint cans stacked outside BBK Bottle Depot, garbage and abandoned shopping carts left in the ally and along Peterson Road, and congested traffic blocking the road and alley.
"Would you want those pallets and paint cans next to your bedroom? This is within nine and a half feet of a house," Gobin said. "This is [a photo of] your refuse dump. Compare that to these [photos of BBK]. Which is the dump? Where is the pride of ownership in this mess?"
The vacant lots have a substantial slope, he added, which will mean residents will have a large retaining wall facing their properties at the back.
"Those beautiful drawings you saw, look closer. That property is sloped like crazy," he said.
Although the two lots have Peterson Road addresses, access to the bottle depot has been through a city-owned alley facing onto Hollandia Drive.
Many of the speakers complained about not being able to use their own alley, or having to avoid Hollandia Drive because of the heavy traffic coming to and from the bottle depot.
Residents also raised concerns about people stealing bottles and cans from their property to recycle at the depot.
"I caught one in my yard two years ago, and I chased him," Matt Cooper said. "Do you know where I found him? BBK Bottle Depot."
Hollandia Drive resident Dean Andrews said the problem has become so bad, he simply avoids the street now.
"We have a daughter who was born on Hollandia Drive. Now she wants to move," Andrews said. "And we will if this goes through."
L&M Engineering planner Heather Oland said Kim's goal with the expansion is to improve, rather than detract from, the area.
"Many of the issues the neighbours are concerned about are corrected by the improvement," Oland said. "BBK is a good corporate citizen that provides a valuable service. Austin [Kim] operates his business in an orderly and clean manner. We believe the site can be safely developed in an esthetic manner."
Kim said he's tried to improve BBK's operations since taking over the business three years ago.
"I encourage our staff to go out at least once a day and clean up the property," he said. "Our interest is to locate in a central area and provide the customers a nice setting. What I'm here to offer our neighbours and our customers is a really nice building."
City council voted 5-3 in favour of allowing the rezoning. Mayor Dan Rogers, coun. Brian Skakun and coun. Don Bassermann opposed the rezoning.
Councillors Cameron Stolz, Debora Munoz, Dave Wilbur, Shari Green and Garth Frizzell voted in favour of the rezoning. Coun. Murry Krause was not at the meeting.
Final approval of the rezoning will require city staff signing off on a traffic study done by Kim.
"This is not going anywhere without a traffic analysis," Munoz said.
Centralized recycling services are important to the community, she said, and the development will be an improvement for the neighbourhood.
"That intersection has been a problem for a long time. I think Mr. Kim should not be punished for the circumstances he did not create," Green said. "[But] I think that Mr. Kim has heard loud and clear this evening... the expectations of his neighbours."
