Mission council has denied a request to build a new gas station complex in Stave Falls.
During its regular Monday night meeting, council voted against a request to push the project forward to a public hearing. As a result the project is now stalled.
The proposal would have seen the property at 29684 Dewdney Trunk Road in Stave Falls rezoned to “accommodate a rural mixed-use commercial development that includes a service station with one residential unit on the second floor.”
At a previous meeting (on Nov. 20, 2017) council granted first reading to the proposed change. However at that time concerns were expressed regarding the location along Dewdney Trunk Road given the high vehicle speeds.
It appears those concerns were not alleviated.
At the end of the meeting the project’s applicant, Randy Schmidt, addressed council, telling them that while it was his idea to build a gas station in Stave Falls, it was Mission’s planning department who picked the site.
“I’ve been dealing with the planning department for 16 months. I’ve spent $1.2 million on this project and I’ve never had the opportunity to even talk to you people. I think your system is very flawed.”
He went on to say he never had a chance to see the staff report on the project, until he walked into the council meeting on Monday.
“They spent 16 months on this and they told me last week that they were going to support me in this endeavour with council. Support me? They threw me under the bus,” said Schmidt.
Mayor Randy Hawes said the proposal did have some support.
“It did have support… Our planning staff did support it. Our engineering staff don’t support it. That’s what happened here,” said Hawes.
Schmidt said he recently spent $12,000 on a transportation study and it “wasn’t even mentioned in the report.”
While he accepted council’s decision, he reiterated that the system is flawed.
“It shouldn’t take 16 months and $1.2 million and the support of planning, all the way, to get to this point.”
