No Stranger to the Struggles of Small Business.
In 2015, my business partner Kris and I opened the first micro-brewery in Lethbridge in over 100 years. Now into our 6th year of operations, we are still waiting for that magical moment of actually breaking even (we're still growing though). Years of economic uncertainty, decline, and now a global pandemic have put pressures on local business owners and operators already struggling to compete with online retail giants.
Rhetoric of the last 10 years has put pressure on consumers to "Shop Local" and while supporting your local businesses is really important, there is a role for the City to play in ensuring Lethbridge has a robust, resilient, and sustainable local economy well into the future.
Rhetoric of the last 10 years has put pressure on consumers to "Shop Local" and while supporting your local businesses is really important, there is a role for the City to play in ensuring Lethbridge has a robust, resilient, and sustainable local economy well into the future.
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Incubate those who Innovate.
The key to a robust local economy is to ensure that local innovators have the ability to achieve their goals. Lethbridge is home to two world-class educational institutions and draws a lot of young, vibrant people to the city, even if it's for a short period of time. There is an opportunity here to not only reduce brain-drain in the city (that's the trend of educated people leaving the city for jobs elsewhere after they are finished school), but also to expand our local offering of shops and industries to encourage local buy-in.
Unfortunately, some of the policies and procedures at City Hall have been on the books for a while and we are overdue on some policy updates, particularly around how zoning works in the city. |
What is Zoning? And why should we care?
Zoning is how governments, in this case the municipal government, control the physical development of various parts of the city. Zoning helps us determine what uses a particular piece of property can have. Zoning ordinances really came about during the 20th Century in North America when many cities, ours included, were going through massive population increases while people moved into the area. Zoning rules prevented potentially difficult situations like putting a steel refinery next to an elementary school: something that obviously isn't a good fit.
An unintended consequence of over-legislating zoning, however, is that needed services may not be available where they are most needed.
A recent example of a Zoning issue was the 2021 application by The Mustard Seed (a religious-based not-for-profit organization that operates in several other cities around North America) wanting to put a 24 hour emergency shelter and community kitchen at 110 13th St S (the old Western One lot directly beside the highway). The application for the placement of a 24 hour emergency shelter required a Zoning change to allow this specific use on that site (the other goals like the community kitchen and drop-in center/resource center were available under the current zoning laws, but not a housing shelter). The site was identified as desirable by the Mustard Seed because the target clients of the services already frequent the area of the site, and it would have been centrally located to other services people needing social assistance could access. Ultimately, the request to re-zone the site for a Shelter was defeated by Council due to backlash from the community: residents and business owners in the area who thought the site was inappropriate. And that's okay! Community feedback and interest is PARAMOUNT to making sure the City works properly for everyone.
However Zoning also prevents other things: like opening a cafe in a neighbourhood zoned strictly residential. Commercial enterprises have essentially been locked out of residential areas due to Zoning ordinances because we've over-restricted the activities that could happen there. This has resulted in distinct divides between residential and commercial areas, and has the unintended consequence of resulting in an auto-centric development pattern as people rely on private transportation to reach necessities like clinics, grocery stores, and places of work. This has led to urban sprawl as large corporate developments are pushed out to the fringes of developed cities: creating spaces only international chains can afford to occupy and further putting pressure on small local providers.
What worked to keep factories and foundries out of residential areas had the unintended consequences of keeping everything good out of neighborhoods as well! By minimizing zoning ordinances to only deal with what is medically/environmentally necessary we can free up opportunity for small local shops to flourish in areas that are environmentally and economically sustainable. By cutting the red tape at the municipal level, we can encourage vitality in our city that used to exist before these ordinances changed how we build.
Zoning is how governments, in this case the municipal government, control the physical development of various parts of the city. Zoning helps us determine what uses a particular piece of property can have. Zoning ordinances really came about during the 20th Century in North America when many cities, ours included, were going through massive population increases while people moved into the area. Zoning rules prevented potentially difficult situations like putting a steel refinery next to an elementary school: something that obviously isn't a good fit.
An unintended consequence of over-legislating zoning, however, is that needed services may not be available where they are most needed.
A recent example of a Zoning issue was the 2021 application by The Mustard Seed (a religious-based not-for-profit organization that operates in several other cities around North America) wanting to put a 24 hour emergency shelter and community kitchen at 110 13th St S (the old Western One lot directly beside the highway). The application for the placement of a 24 hour emergency shelter required a Zoning change to allow this specific use on that site (the other goals like the community kitchen and drop-in center/resource center were available under the current zoning laws, but not a housing shelter). The site was identified as desirable by the Mustard Seed because the target clients of the services already frequent the area of the site, and it would have been centrally located to other services people needing social assistance could access. Ultimately, the request to re-zone the site for a Shelter was defeated by Council due to backlash from the community: residents and business owners in the area who thought the site was inappropriate. And that's okay! Community feedback and interest is PARAMOUNT to making sure the City works properly for everyone.
However Zoning also prevents other things: like opening a cafe in a neighbourhood zoned strictly residential. Commercial enterprises have essentially been locked out of residential areas due to Zoning ordinances because we've over-restricted the activities that could happen there. This has resulted in distinct divides between residential and commercial areas, and has the unintended consequence of resulting in an auto-centric development pattern as people rely on private transportation to reach necessities like clinics, grocery stores, and places of work. This has led to urban sprawl as large corporate developments are pushed out to the fringes of developed cities: creating spaces only international chains can afford to occupy and further putting pressure on small local providers.
What worked to keep factories and foundries out of residential areas had the unintended consequences of keeping everything good out of neighborhoods as well! By minimizing zoning ordinances to only deal with what is medically/environmentally necessary we can free up opportunity for small local shops to flourish in areas that are environmentally and economically sustainable. By cutting the red tape at the municipal level, we can encourage vitality in our city that used to exist before these ordinances changed how we build.
Minimum Parking Requirements: outdated and old fashioned (but not in the good way)
This is a really quick and interesting map. Highlighted in red are all the available parking spaces in the Downtown and Warehouse Districts. This does not include city-owned on-street parking, what is shown is just what is available in privately owned lots. Some will contend that private lots are not "public parking" but the City's Minimum Parking Requirements legislate that business owners have to provide a certain amount of parking.
There is a common misconception that parking provided by businesses is "free". It isn't. Someone has to pay to maintain those parking stalls, and parking stalls are expensive. When businesses want or need, by extraneous factors such as a global pandemic or systemic economic breakdown, to change how they operate often their hands are tied because of these bizarre parking requirements.
For example: my business saw the benefit of adding a patio to our micro-brewery. We had to get permission from the City to install a patio in our parking lot. The city only wanted the patio to be the size of 2 parking stalls, which would only seat about 10 people comfortably. We fought for the ability to install a full sized patio (double the occupancy of our interior service space of 30 people) because it was a better use of the area where we wanted to put it. Our parking lot is inconveniently wedged between our building and another, with a very limited view in or out, so very few people have ever tried to park there. Instead our customers take advantage of the ample street parking in our area, and we've literally never had a problem.
Another example: a local gymnastics school wanted to expand their interior space to accommodate their growing competitive programs, but the parking requirements couldn't be met. We had to fight pretty hard to get the Subdivision Appeal Board to grant the parking waiver because while the space inside was expanding the number of people USING the space wasn't going up at all. But the parking requirement is tied to square footage, not occupancy. It just doesn't make sense.
In the past 2 years, small businesses have had to fight especially hard to meet the changing requirements of doing business in a global crisis. Many restaurants have had to sacrifice parking spaces to put up bigger patios so they could even make ends-meet to stay open. Fortunately, in this case, the City was able to accommodate these requests due to the extreme circumstances. However it really highlighted that these ordinances: and the overabundance of "free" parking the city has doesn't actually help businesses at all.
There are some pretty amazing cases to restrict the amount of parking in the City: from automotive trip generation to public transit use, the availability of parking affects our everyday lives, just not in the way that most people think. Edmonton has led the way for Albertan Cities when in 2019 they moved from MPRs to a system called Open Option parking: which allows businesses and developers to decide what the appropriate amount of parking is for their needs. This means that parking is never really in short supply, but it isn't in oversupply either. It has allowed businesses the ability to adapt to changing needs of customers, and actually activate dormant and underutilized areas for small pop-up shops and boutiques which creates more interest and community in a space.
It's time to move Forward Together from the blight of Minimum Parking Requirements.
There is a common misconception that parking provided by businesses is "free". It isn't. Someone has to pay to maintain those parking stalls, and parking stalls are expensive. When businesses want or need, by extraneous factors such as a global pandemic or systemic economic breakdown, to change how they operate often their hands are tied because of these bizarre parking requirements.
For example: my business saw the benefit of adding a patio to our micro-brewery. We had to get permission from the City to install a patio in our parking lot. The city only wanted the patio to be the size of 2 parking stalls, which would only seat about 10 people comfortably. We fought for the ability to install a full sized patio (double the occupancy of our interior service space of 30 people) because it was a better use of the area where we wanted to put it. Our parking lot is inconveniently wedged between our building and another, with a very limited view in or out, so very few people have ever tried to park there. Instead our customers take advantage of the ample street parking in our area, and we've literally never had a problem.
Another example: a local gymnastics school wanted to expand their interior space to accommodate their growing competitive programs, but the parking requirements couldn't be met. We had to fight pretty hard to get the Subdivision Appeal Board to grant the parking waiver because while the space inside was expanding the number of people USING the space wasn't going up at all. But the parking requirement is tied to square footage, not occupancy. It just doesn't make sense.
In the past 2 years, small businesses have had to fight especially hard to meet the changing requirements of doing business in a global crisis. Many restaurants have had to sacrifice parking spaces to put up bigger patios so they could even make ends-meet to stay open. Fortunately, in this case, the City was able to accommodate these requests due to the extreme circumstances. However it really highlighted that these ordinances: and the overabundance of "free" parking the city has doesn't actually help businesses at all.
There are some pretty amazing cases to restrict the amount of parking in the City: from automotive trip generation to public transit use, the availability of parking affects our everyday lives, just not in the way that most people think. Edmonton has led the way for Albertan Cities when in 2019 they moved from MPRs to a system called Open Option parking: which allows businesses and developers to decide what the appropriate amount of parking is for their needs. This means that parking is never really in short supply, but it isn't in oversupply either. It has allowed businesses the ability to adapt to changing needs of customers, and actually activate dormant and underutilized areas for small pop-up shops and boutiques which creates more interest and community in a space.
It's time to move Forward Together from the blight of Minimum Parking Requirements.
