I am one of the neighbours of 96 Yorkton Ave. Although our concerns have been trivialized as a case of not in my backyard and we have been maligned in the community as child haters, nothing could be further from the truth.
I have raised funds for and helped found a daycare at Penticton Secondary School to help single mothers continue their education. I have raised funds for child therapy helping physically, emotionally and sexually abused children in the area. I have accompanied battered women to the RCMP and volunteered countless hours at local safe houses for battered women and children.
We have lived in this neighbourhood for almost 50 years and owned businesses in Penticton and area. We are concerned citizens and have expressed legitimate concerns about this rezoning application and the process. While some of our concerns are local to our neighbourhood, the majority of our concerns are those that should be shared by all residents of the city.
At the Jan. 12 council meeting, city staff admitted they actually proposed this residential location for the commercial daycare enterprise when in fact, there are numerous better suited commercially zoned locations for a major daycare. Don’t be fooled, this is not a family-sized daycare. This is a commercial business, no different from Wal-Mart, McDonalds and Starbucks.
The applicant admits that if she doesn’t have a minimum of 20 children, this daycare will not be profitable. She only seeks to open in a residential neighbourhood so she will not have to pay commercial tax rates. Only she benefits from such tax breaks, not the families in her care, nor the neighbours, not the city. This city seems to support excessive tax breaks for this applicant, while refusing to allow homeowners to operate small home-based businesses. Why does this applicant warrant special concessions?
Besides these tax breaks, this commercial business will likely seek additional concessions from the city. A daycare of this size (20-25 full-time children) will require more than two trash bins and trash pick-up more than once per week, as currently allotted to residents. Who will pay for such additional services?
It is astonishing that the city proposed this location for a major daycare centre. Not only is this a low-density residential neighbourhood, it is largely made up of working adults and senior citizens. There are a few young families living nearby, which means the daycare will draw from outside the vicinity, bringing unnecessary traffic to this area and causing safety concerns. Areas with a higher concentration of young families, or nearby elementary schools would be better suited.
The application itself does not address parking and safety concerns. The applicant will have three staff members (watching 20-25 full-time children); yet she has only allocated one off-street parking spot to this business. She has designated a small off-street lane for pick ups and drop offs; yet, the lane is so small that parents must back their cars out on to Yorkton Avenue. This is a safety concern for children, pedestrians and traffic which has not been addressed. This is a small, older home that was never set up to house 20 to 25 children under the age of five for up to 16 hours a day.
As for the process, we are concerned that the city suggested a residential location for a commercial business and did not provide adequate notice to the neighbours; yet, maligns us when we express legitimate concerns that they should have addressed in the first place. The applicant has owned this property since May 2014, yet she has never, until the past week, approached us, notified us of her plans or attempted to address our concerns. She tells us that her application has already been approved by the city (before public hearing has occurred) and then invites us to attend an “open house.” Yet, we are being called names in the community, including by city councillors?
If this was a family style daycare of eight children, which is allowed in this zone, we would not object. The applicant seeks to make a profit, apparently on the backs of the rest of the city in lost tax revenues and increased services. And, if she does not make a profit what will become of the residence once it has been rezoned? And, if the city continues down this road of allowing commercial businesses to re-locate to residential neighbourhoods where will it end? What’s the point of having a city plan and zoning laws?
Albert and Jill Cronie
Penticton
