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Council supports liquor primary licence

City council voted unanimously in favour Monday night of supporting a downtown nightspot’s quest for a liquor primary licence.
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City council voted unanimously in favour Monday night of supporting a downtown nightspot’s quest for a liquor primary licence.
The 1st Avenue Tavern, a 50-seat venue in the National Hotel at the corner of First and Dominion, currently operates under a food primary licence, which means food must be served with drinks.
Getting council support is one of the hurdles owner Bernie Schneider must clear to secure a liquor primary licence from the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch.
The venue would be open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to midnight the rest of the week.
In a letter to the city, Schneider says the intent is to provide liquor service, full-menu food service, pool, televised sports, cable music channels and, from time to time, live music.
“It is my intent to offer a clean, safe environment for customers,” he says. “A place to come for a good meal,have a reasonably priced drink, play some pool, socialize and have a great time.”
• Council voted 4-3 in favour of staff’s recommendation to deny a homeowner’s request to further increase the size of a shop he wants to build on his property at 7731 Sabyam Rd.
In November, owner Glayne Guild secured a variance from council to expand the footprint of the build from 90 square metres – the maximum allowed for an accessory building under the zone for the property – to 207 square metres and to increase the height from six to seven metres.
On Monday, council considered a second request from Guild to further increase the allowable size to 265 square metres in the floor space and eight metres in height.
During a hearing, Guild told council he was back before council because he miscalculated the size he wanted when converting it from imperial to metric measurements. Letters from all three adjacent neighbours in support of the latest application were also provided to council.
Guild’s request drew a mixed reaction from council. Coun. Terri McConnachie confirmed the building will cover only 11 per cent of the property, still less than the 30 per cent allowed but Coun. Garth Frizzell noted council had already granted a variance to more than double the building’s size.
Staff had contended the application  inconsistent with surrounding land uses and the building would not be incidental to the principal use as a site for a single-family home.
Along with Frizzell, Mayor Lyn Hall and councillors Brian Skakun and Susan Scott voted to deny the request while McConnachie was joined by councillors Cori Ramsay and Kyle Sampson in supporting of the application.
Councillors Frank Everritt and Murry Krause were absent.
• Council also voted unanimously in favour of a road closure as part of a deal to sell city-owned land to a developer.
The approval paved the way for the sale of 817 square metres at the west end of Gannett Road and Logan Crescent, and southwest of the intersection of Tyner and Ospika Boulevard to Mile Land Corp. for $1 million to allow for development of a subdivision in the area.