The president of the White Rock Farmers’ Market is looking for answers after the city’s mayor told council last week that there have been a number of early-morning noise complaints.
“The board of directors have yet to see one legitimate formal complaint,” Sandy VanDeKinder told Peace Arch News on Friday.
“I have written proof that there have been no complaints from the Miramar strata dated December 2014. It was only moments before the Jan. 12 meeting, when all of the WRFM board members had gathered to hear the approval of another year of the market, when we were taken off the (city council) agenda because council had received a letter (a few days before).”
Mayor Wayne Baldwin told council Jan. 26 that there had been “some complaints” and said he was unsure why a 7 a.m. startup time had been allowed in previous years.
Asked about VanDeKinder’s concerns, Baldwin told PAN he is not aware of any official complaints on file, but said that residents had asked him about moving the market from Miramar Village Plaza due to the noise.
The complaints came up during a number of conversations, Baldwin said.
“I don’t think there were any files, it was just people that would comment to me from time to time,” he said.
Baldwin added that residents may have thought the market was a city-run event, due to Coun. Helen Fathers’ involvement as the market’s manager, making them hesitant to file an official complaint.
“What we think happened was people said… there was nothing they could do about it, so they can’t file complaints against it, so they didn’t,” he said.
Miramar Village comprises White Rock’s two tallest highrises. A Jan. 9 letter to the city from Miramar Tower A strata notes: “It is the opinion of the strata council that this is too early and the noise of the set-up is disturbing to the residents of the Miramar Towers.”
The letter is signed per Cliff Annable, the strata president.
Annable, a former city councillor who ran unsuccessfully in the November civic election with the White Rock Coalition, told PAN he wrote the letter on behalf of himself and other residents.
“I have nothing personally against the farmers’ market as a market. But I do have (a problem) with every Sunday morning, at 7 a.m., there is this noise,” Annable said Monday. “When you want to sleep in on your one day off… it’s an issue.
“A lot of people thought it was run by the city…so they didn’t think they could do anything about it; they didn’t know what to do. Most people don’t – by their nature – like to (complain).”
VanDeKinder told council last week that it is “logistically impossible” to get 80 vendors and their vehicles safely on the site and off in one hour.
The city’s director of leisure services, Eric Stepura, supported a start time of 7:30 a.m.
With Fathers absent and Coun. David Chesney recusing himself due to a conflict of interest, council voted unanimously to reject any start time earlier than 8 a.m.
The market opens May 24.
