Some on Dryden Council want City staff to revisit its property zoning bylaw.
Councillor Norm Bush is concerned the integrity of commercial businesses in the downtown core may be compromised by relaxed rules to allow residential development.
“It was circumvented at least one time that I’m aware of, with what I would suggest was misinformation or poor information given to Council. And we made a decision based on something that turned out to be incorrect. So that building, for all intents and purposes, is no longer available for any commercial space.”
Bush is calling for changes.
“Otherwise I think what we’re going to potentially do is get to the point where we have businesses that are downtown but we’re going to potentially lose our critical mass. And if we lose our critical mass in the downtown commercial zone, people are going to have less and less reason to go down there.”
Councillor Michelle Price is a downtown business owner and she doesn’t want Dryden to lose its central business curb appeal.
“I can understand why people want to live downtown, the appeal of living close to commercial. But on the other end. If you are giving up your commercial space in order to have residential, you’re losing the appeal, eventually it turns into a residential downtown.”
Shayne MacKinnon says the City shouldn’t slam the door shut on residential development.
“I think it’s something that we should really hear from, those concerned with it, not that we aren’t as a Council. But I would feel uncomfortable passing or altering a bylaw to change the face of downtown without having that knowledge to hear.”
Staff have agreed to review the bylaw as part of its Official Plan update early next year.
