Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Tofino Council Cafe Story

http://www.westerlynews.ca/news/397617221.html

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obviously should apply as a cooking school and student cafeteria.or run for council.

Anonymous said...

So, if you do your homework, and jump through all the hoops, and follow all the rules, and meet all the requirements............ then you still get f**ked by mayor and council. This is totally wrong!

Anonymous said...

They're concerned about "maybe" there will be a high traffic surf shop there, maybe at some time in the future. Maybe. If they're so concerned about that, then why aren't they doing something about the surf shop on the corner that operates their businees on the sidewalk and out in the street, causing a regular traffic inconvenience and hazard..... Not just occasionally, but constantly. No maybe about it. Instead, they choose to lay the blame for their lack of regulation on the guy following the rules and trying to be a reasonable citizen. This sucks. Shame on mayor, shame on council.

Anonymous said...

He won't pay the imaginary parking extortion, and he's not forking over "amenities" funds...... so it's obvious..... THEY WANT MONEY! ..... so they can waste it.

Anonymous said...

Cypre Crescent is already a parking lot for Wolf In the Fog. It's a joke. Add in 2 cafes and the extra traffic they will bring and there goes the neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

Cypre Crescent is a residential neighborhood. It's already dangerous for the neighborhood kids with all the traffic trying to bypass the intersection by using Malon Lane

Anonymous said...

I'd like to know more about the "parking in lieu fund". How much has been collected in fees related to this fund? Where is the money today? In a special account, somewhere? How much is in the fund? What plan(s), if any, are there as to how this cash is going to be used to create "parking infrastructure"? Who can account for this money? If the money is gone, where did it go? Who authorized that?

Ralph Tieleman said...

Good luck finding the money or even the records of who paid what !!

Anonymous said...

What!! I'm amazed!..... It sounds like the money is missing. Stolen? Embezzeled? Lost under someone's desk? And no records, eh? Is it being used to build a deck on some staff member's house? Or did it leave town with former council, mayor or staff? If the money is missing, why isn't current mayor and council doing something to account for where it went? Why does the word "corruption" come to mind? I assume that you've tried, via freedom of information requests, to locate info on this topic?

Anonymous said...

I guess Dylan would rather have parking for his cafe than a safe place for his kids to play.

Ralph Tieleman said...

I don't believe there was anything illegal happening with the parking cash it was just sloppy record keeping.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps we should pay the District office and financial staff more money...... Perhaps then they could keep track of the District's finances? Disgusting that they could "lose" all the parking in lieu funds...... and no one be held accountable. Meanwhile, development continues to be hamstrung by continued existance of this parking fund "blackmail" attached to commercial licences and permits. Why? So they can "lose" that money, too? Perhaps nothing illegal, but , at best, negligent.

June Sloman said...

We have a house on Cypre Crescent, and there was cars parked on both sides all summer

Doug Sloman said...

As a property owner on Cypre crescent,i have seen many illegally parked vehicles on the crescent this past year.Many used the same spots every day that they worked over in the Cedar corner building.Adding more vehicular congestion is not compatible for a RESIDENTIAL neighbourhood. Cars already park too close to the intersection onto Campbell. I've narrowly missed one car coming down the wrong side of the roadway,because a vehicle was parked mostly on the road he had to go around. Don't put this burden on the already harried residents.

Anonymous said...

One small café and the council is in a tizzy. I sympathize with the Cypre residents as there is currently no solution for them, and many others trying to use the dowrown core. The real problem however is that Tofino Council has been anti development for so long, it has failed to provide for the reasonable development of the town, including parking. Sticking their heads in the sand for years, is like denial that he town was changing, and more people are coming. Now we have many problems and no solutions. It is a lack of vision here.

Councillors do not want change. Planning Dept has become an exercise in bean counting. Looking for freebies here and there. while the primary function of planning for the future is abandoned.

More people are coming every year. Who is surprised there is no plan, and the world must come to a standstill because some one actually wants to reduce there seating capacity. Now the developer is getting whipsawed between Council, Staff and Neighbours. Tofino in a nutshell

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that the house was first used with a temporary use permit for Tofino Bus parking. That was the thin end of the wedge of the conversion of it to more commercial usage.

Councils and district staff have regularly over the years allowed large buildings to be created in town without adequate parking. The Campbell builders didn't want to go underground but they had some tiny parking spaces in the back. The Wilson building has a larger parking lot but an awkward box shape such that most of the space is used for vehicle movement. Cedar corner has a useless unpaved parking lot making vehicle movement noisy and is not big enough for delivery vehicles and parking so they use the street to unload.

This proposal is going to be a duplication of the problems faced by the residents surrounding Cedar Corner. The delivery trucks with their Reefer compressors running will be parked on the street further annoying the neighbours on a pretty much daily basis. Cypre isn't wide enough for all this traffic that goes nowhere. They will be either backing in or backing out making a mess of summertime traffic.

If you think this is going to be bad wait until the Tough Beans and the Ice cream building sites get redeveloped without sufficient parking.

Parking on site needs to be provided. The Shore has such a poorly designed inadequate parking lot it is always full and the businesses are fighting over their parking spaces being used by non customers.

Towns are always, not just Tofino, bowing down to the developers. In Sechelt this summer I spoke with a business owner, fed up with the construction of a new building next to where his was without adequate accessible parking. In the process of spray painting the parking spots in front of his business with customer only markings, he was planning to move his business from Sechelt, fed up with the activities of the town council and planning departments.

Businesses must be made to provide their own adequate parking. No parking in lieu of scam otherwise the residents of this town, as well as visitors will soon find it unlivable and unvisitable.

Unknown said...

That payment for non existent parking is a joke! If you want a business then buy enough land for YOUR OWN PARKING!I too would like to know where that money went.
Our neighborhood has been crippled by the Surf shop/Wolf in Fog complex's customers with no place to park so they just park wherever they want....blocking our driveway that we provide for our customers.As well as south on 4th sreet blocking the right lane, making it dangerous for pedestrians.

I also agree with the Cypre Crescent residents concerns.

Anonymous said...

You know what might fix this? A National Cycling Strategy! And if that doesn't work, maybe we can ask to have a District Cycling Strategy! Hahaha.

Anonymous said...

Council has already approved a large commercial building with access only from Malon Lane.There are small kids in that neighbourhood but council only cares about tourists.
We need a more community minded council. Tourists and offshore people take priority over locals.

Anonymous said...

This parking problem has been drip drip, drip for years. Councils have failed to deal with important issues for years. Unable to see the future unfolding before our/their eyes. Failing the citizen in the process. Business people, and other residents alike.
This year everyone started complaining about parking as the water started coming over the proverbial dyke. Councils assigned parking areas plans just shuffle the shortage of parking and hardship from one area to another and are a disaster for core area neighbourhoods as well as many businesses. The downtown is metaphorically choking on its own vomit. There will be more pain for everyone, for years to come, as there are no quick fixes here. Council is about ten years behind the curve on parking, housing, vacation rentals water supply and every other core issue municipalities are mandated to deal with. No vision here, a lack of serious leadership, but plenty of posturing and resources wasted on optics, ideology and political causes. So that councillors and staff can feel important.

Anonymous said...

8:07 Pm...... Exactly. Talk, talk, talk...... do nothing. One thing for sure, this mayor and council is no worse than any previous mayor and council. Unfortunately, no better. Talk, Talk, Talk.....do nothing.

Unknown said...

Could you elaborate? I know of the new building, but access only from Malon Lane????!!!

Ralph Tieleman said...

As far as I know the new surf school building will not have a driveway off of Campbell St. Same as the McDiarmid building that has access only from the lane behind it .Best to check at the District Office as the plan may have been amended.

Anonymous said...

With all of the hoopla around parking in this town I can't help but chuckle despairingly when I see two senior managers' cars parked all day in front of the district office on Campbell St. in a two-hour parking zone. Gadzooks, how can we even begin to take these bylaws seriously? Their windshields are not sporting a parking ticket at the end of the day.

Anonymous said...

@9.09
Staff and offshore vehicles are exempted from parking regulations. Tickets are only for locals and tourists.
When will council realize that the parking chaos on our streets is caused by problems in The Office