Editor:
“It is easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission.”
I cannot understand how prominent, educated, and skilled individuals from the Vancouver business world do not know about zoning.
Persephone and Goldmoss Gallery owners both have created establishments that do not fit with current zoning and both are running operations without first going through the proper process to achieve their goals. They started their businesses without approval, gained community support and now the adjacent neighbours who are not happy are deemed bullies.
I attended a public meeting for Persephone on June 10 and my heart goes out to the adjacent neighbours. This site-specific zoning is the mirror image of Goldmoss Gallery.
Every community member loves these establishments, because they can all go home when they have had their fill. We as adjacent neighbours are home – we have nowhere to go.
Is the process not to get approval first then run your operation? Wouldn’t every business owner love to start up a business without proper process to see if it will succeed, and only when it has succeeded then pay for all the equipment, fees, and rents? Business does not work like that for the norm. Only when we have followed the proper avenue do we find out if we succeeded – that is the chance we take in business.
If our local governments are not enforcing any repercussions or fines for not following the proper process, what is the incentive to do things right?
Does this mean laws are for only the law-abiding citizens?
When a person wants to change existing zones, no site-specific zoning should be approved without full support of adjacent neighbours.
That is community and that is respect.
Monica Petreny, Roberts Creek
