Gibsons council has given first and second readings to zoning and official community plan changes that would allow a Mexican restaurant on Gower Point Road to set up a greenhouse and additional food preparation area on a neighbouring lot.
The Barefoot Gecko, at 438 and 444 Gower Point Rd., sits on a lot with split zoning. The part where the restaurant was built is zoned Downtown Commercial, but the rest is Single-Family Residential.
The owners want to have the whole property zoned commercial to allow for the greenhouse and prep kitchen as well as some additional parking and a patio.
The only significant issue with the application raised at the March 3 meeting of the planning and development committee was whether light from the greenhouse would be disruptive to nearby homes.
The proponents told the committee that the lighting would not be the same brightness as a big commercial greenhouse and the lights would typically only be used during the restaurant operating hours.
A public hearing on the application will be held March 17 at 5:30 p.m. at Gibsons Town Hall.
School Road apartments
The Gibsons planning and development committee has asked for more information about the design of a proposed four-storey, 16-unit apartment building at 757 School Rd. – a lot just across O’Shea Road from the site of BC Housing’s supportive housing project.
For the project to go ahead the property will need to be rezoned from Single-Family Residential to Multi-Family Residential.
The planning department report presented at the March 3 committee meeting said feedback from a public information meeting held by the developer in February was positive and included support for more “economical family units” and the belief that “the proposed development would have ‘tempering’ effect on the supportive housing development.”
Committee members, however, said they felt the drawings and other information in the report were not enough to base a decision on and asked that a draft zoning amendment come back to the committee with a detailed form and character development application so the two can be considered at the same time.
Cannabis shop permit
Councillors in Gibsons have voted to approve a three-year Temporary Use Permit (TUP) for Coastal Bay Cannabis to open a second location at the corner of Highway 101 and Pratt Road.
Coastal Bay, which was the first Sunshine Coast cannabis retailer to get a provincial licence, still has to go through the licensing process for the proposed second location at 1095 Sunshine Coast Hwy., and council also passed a recommendation March 3 to support approval of that licence.
Coun. Aleria Ladwig, who voted for approval, also noted that in denying a TUP application for a cannabis store in 2018, council said it would not consider new applications until zoning bylaws and a policy around cannabis sales were in place.
Those bylaws and policy are currently in the final stages.
Mayor Bill Beamish said he didn’t feel granting the Coastal Bay TUP was inconsistent with that earlier stance because it would not increase the number of cannabis retailers to more than three, which was the number in 2018.
