Sechelt council is backing a liquor licence change for The Bricker Cider Company, despite hearing a lot of opposition from some in the neighbourhood.
Bricker, which is located at 6642 Norwest Bay Rd., has applied to the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch (LCRB) for a lounge endorsement.
Speaking as a delegation at the April 3 regular council meeting, Bricker general manager Nick Farrer said the change from their current licence rules would end confusion about where on the site patrons can drink.
Right now the business is limited to serving five-ounce cider samples inside the on-site tasting room.
“It’s very frustrating. Customers find it bizarre, because they’ve been to breweries where you can get more,” Farrer said. “In the garden we have something called a picnic endorsement, and a picnic endorsement allows off-sales to be drunk there. So people can come into the tasting room, they can purchase off-sale a bottle or a growler and they can take that into the garden and they can drink those. It’s really confusing for people and what we want to do is simplify our serving rules.”
Farrer said the lounge endorsement would allow the cidery to serve regular-sized glasses of cider in the tasting room, and the picnic endorsement would be revoked in favour of creating an outdoor serving area. In response to a question from council, Farrer said he felt that would allow for better supervision of the outdoor areas.
He also said the proposed endorsement would not include a change in the 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. opening hours nor an expansion into serving hard liquor, although the cidery does want to start offering one locally-produced beer if the lounge endorsement is approved.
“We do not want to be a bar. We want to serve people a glass of cider in our cider house,” Farrer said.
Neighbourhood residents Walter Tripp and Dave Orum appeared as a delegation to oppose the changes.
“If you sell liquor by the glass, basically you’re a bar,” Tripp said.
Tripp was critical of the notice of the application given by the district and the time allowed to respond. He also dismissed a letter in support of the application from the West Sechelt Community Association, saying it didn’t reflect the opinions of the closest neighbours.
“There’s not one other residential neighbourhood in Sechelt where a bar would be allowed to operate,” Tripp said.
Orum also made the argument that Bricker would essentially become a bar if the endorsement goes through, and reminded council that neighbours raised objections when Bricker was first applying for a licence and had included a lounge endorsement. That part of the application was withdrawn in 2016.
“But to allow that to scale up and enlarge, and now we’re saying we’re going to have 80 people there? I don’t see that the business benefit should outweigh the neighbourhood, which says it’s a quiet residential neighbourhood.”
Councillors were also presented with more than 30 form letters that opened with, “I am opposed to Bricker Cider Co., based on my experiences, and am opposed to changes that include serving more alcohol and serving more guests,” before going on to outline concerns about parking, noise, and a claim that there would be an “exponential increase of impaired driving through the main traffic corridor.”
After hearing from the delegations, and planning staff, council voted to support the endorsement, with Coun. Tom Lamb the only vote against. Earlier in the meeting he noted that traffic on Norwest Bay and Mason roads, especially in the school zone around West Sechelt Elementary, was a concern raised by residents during the election, but didn’t say if that was the reason he voted no.
Council also voted to ask staff to include a restriction on the business licence that would limit opening hours to 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and limit the products sold to beer and cider.
The final decision on whether to grant the lounge endorsement will be made by the LCRB.
