March 9, 2011
Chip truck saga
continues at council table
by Vance Gutzman
The saga of the chip truck in Deep River's downtown core continued last
week, as town council decided to allow Wazzy's Fries to resume
operation - for the time being.
Council has poutine a lot of time debating the merits of the chip
truck's location (on Champlain Street next to the town hall) in recent
weeks.
As previously reported in the NRT, a site plan agreement was completed
last June for the truck's current location.
Electricity was also hard-wired to the site of the chip truck, at the
town's request, and its owners (Tim and Paula Wasmund) worked in
conjunction with the public works department to ensure the site was as
safe as possible.
A lease agreement between the town and the Wasmunds was drawn up last
year, but municipal elections in the fall precluded it from being
signed.
That was all done under the auspices of the past council, but a
majority of the members of the new council didn't feel the chip truck's
location was an appropriate complement to the downtown core.
And at the end of February, council voted against entering into a lease
agreement for Wazzy's Fries at its current location.
Town staff then went back to the drawing board, and planning director
John Walden offered council a possible solution to the chip truck
dilemma at last week's meeting.
In an issue report to council, Walden noted that the Wasmunds
would like to open for business this month, and he presented council
with two options: possible locations for Wazzy's Fries; and allowing
the Wasmunds to start up and continue operations at their current
location prior to moving.
Walden suggested two locations where the chip truck - the first being
on Ridge Road just west of the Community Centre exit, where JC Fries
was located for several years.
The second option would be to locate the business on the vacant
property next to Giant Tiger, though council noted that the last
council rejected that option because it felt it wouldn't help the
municipality's efforts in selling that particular parcel of land.
Councillor Terry Myers was pleased with Walden's suggestion that
Wazzy's Fries could set up at the old JC Fries location.
"I'd be happy to see it move back to its location in a previous
incarnation," Myers said, adding he wouldn't have a problem with the
chip truck operating at its current location until a site plan and
lease agreement can be implemented.
"I would hope it would be done in short order."
But just when everyone around the council table thought a solution had
been found, the bottom fell out, with Deputy Mayor Mary MacCafferty's
pronouncement that the former council had been about to ask JC Fries to
move, back in 2006, because its operation contravened the town's zoning
bylaw.
Under the Official Plan, MacCafferty said, the Community Centre
property is zoned as "open space" and as such necessitates an
"unobstructed view of the Ottawa River."
(The former owner of JC Fries passed away before the town could order
that chip truck moved.)
MacCafferty's 11th hour revelation drew a wearied look from Mayor David
Thompson.
"Thank you, I think," he said of the deputy mayor's new information.
The town's planning director had to concede that MacCafferty's
information was on the mark.
"We've always obeyed our own zoning bylaws," Walden said.
"We were about to ask JC Fries to move, that's true."
Poor planning?
So, with the ghost of JC Fries exhumed from the planning ashes, the
future of Wazzy's Fries was once again re-opened for debate, with
Councillor Chris Carroll leading the charge.
"I'm not opposed to a chip truck," Carroll said.
"I am opposed to poor planning."
Carroll said Deep River should take a look at bylaws in other
municipalities which govern businesses such as chip trucks, and he
cited Pembroke's as an example.
First and foremost, Carroll said, that city's bylaw designates where
the municipality wants such businesses to be located, and secondly, it
mandates that such businesses be true to the definition of "mobile."
"These two things need to be discussed at this council table," Carroll
said, noting that proper planning could free up space not just for
Wazzy's Fries, but similar business ventures as well down the road.
"Our primary purpose is not to provide locations for chip trucks. It's
to provide proper planning."
The whole issue of the Community Centre land being zoned "open space,"
meanwhile, rubbed Myers the wrong way.
He argued the town should be able to allow Wazzy's Fries to operate at
the former JC Fries location under the auspices of non-conforming use.
"There are uses in that building which would be commercial in every
other municipality," Myers said, citing the bowling alley and the
thrift shop.
"Are we going to start cracking down on them?"
But Councillor Daniel Banks (who, along with MacCafferty were the only
two members of council to vote in favour last month of signing on to a
lease agreement for Wazzy's Fries at its current location), said that
moving Wazzy's Fries to the JC Fries location would be a stop-gap
measure at best.
"I wouldn't want to move them around every year while we get this
planning done," Banks said.
"I'd prefer it to operate where it is until there is a coherent plan in
place that solves this issue once and for all."
The time finally came for council to vote on a resolution which had
been prepared by staff, whereby council would approve the Community
Centre location for Wazzy's Fries, which would be permitted to open for
business at its current location until site plan and lease agreements
can be signed, sealed and delivered.
That's when the proverbial fry truck hit another bump in the road, with
Myers questioning, in light of the new information brought forward by
MacCafferty, whether the resolution was even legal for council to vote
on.
So council tabled the resolution and took a 15 minute break, after
which it was decided that Wazzy's Fries will be allowed to open, and
stay open, at its current location until the town can come up with a
way of dealing with the matter.
"We don't want to let haste get in the way of our decision-making,"
Thompson said.
"John (Walden) will tell him he's open for business until we can deal
with the issue. We don't want to be an impediment."
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