Dear mayor and council:
Three different people advanced reasons for having a car wash at Monday’s Sooke Council meeting, Doug Wittich, Herb Haldane, and the municipal planner.
• Councillor Herb Haldane said that we have to have smart growth and driving to Langford to wash a car does not seem like smart growth. He said we are in the business of providing services and this is a needed service.
• Doug Wittich said that car washes can be good for the environment because they reclaim the water and keep it from getting into the harbour.
Mr. Wittich’s argument can conclude that a car wash somewhere in Sooke is a good thing, but it does not logically imply that a car wash belongs in the CTC2 zone that excludes car washes. Haldane’s argument falls to the same criticism. Neither proponent of the car wash has given a reason for it being in the CTC2 zone.
I disagree with Haldane’s statement that council is in the business of providing services, or even helping others to provide those services. Business people provide services and Sooke councillors have the job of making sure the things that get built do not inhibit future development envisioned for this area.
The municipal planner’s argument took on the far more difficult job of explaining why a car should be allowed in the CTC2 zone.
• He said if you look at other things allowed in CTC2, you would find a car wash is not all that different. For instance, “parking lots and bus stops are allowed in a CTC2 zone, they both involve traffic, so does a car wash.”
This is a very weak reason for having a car wash in the lane behind the grocery store. Bus stops and parking lots go with any business development, and neither is a hindrance to pedestrian use of the downtown. In fact, both are necessary to have pedestrian use of the downtown. A car wash is simply a destination for cars. Automotive services belong with other things that are destinations for cars, such as near gas stations or mechanical services. This is the whole point of having zoning. The fact that the planner would advance such a poor argument after all his training in the field seems like a tacit agreement with opponents of the car wash, almost a cry for help to keep him from doing something against his principles.
Rob Martin
Sooke
