Councillors ‘reluctantly’ OK drive-thru by homes

KITCHENER — City councillors wrestled with the issue of whether to allow a drive-thru A&W to be built next to a residential neighbourhood Monday, but ultimately decided there was little they could do to stop it.

Councillors deliberated for about three hours at Monday’s planning meeting, before voting 8-2 to allow the 24-hour drive-thru to go ahead on a vacant lot at Ottawa Street South at Strasburg Road.

Residents from a number of adjacent homes, mostly on Roberts Crescent, raised concerns with city planners about noise and light pollution, increased emissions from cars idling in the drive-thru, increased traffic, garbage and smells, among others.

Mel Shaughnessy-Daub, who lives next door to the site, pointed out that three of the most collision-prone intersections in Waterloo Region are nearby, and she fears the small site so close to a busy intersection would create a dangerous situation.

Every other A&W and McDonald’s in the city is in a small mall or “a nice distance away from a corner,” she said.

Ben Kooh, who owns the site, told councillors that he wants to be a good neighbour, and has addressed each concern raised by city planners, noting he will move the restaurant as far as possible from the homes, place the drive-thru intercom on the side of the building furthest from homes, build a solid wood 2.4metre fence when only a 1.8-metre fence is required, install medians to prevent left turns into the restaurant and store garbage in underground Moloks rather than standard metal garbage bins.

Kooh made it clear that if council rejected the application for the zone change, he would appeal the decision to the Ontario Municipal Board.

“I think we’ve done our homework, and we’ve done more than enough” to address concerns raised by staff and residents, he told council.

Victor Labreche, a planner hired by Kooh, pointed out that there are several other restaurants along Ottawa and Stras-

burg, some of them backing onto homes.

Noise and traffic aren’t likely to be much worse with this development, he said, noting that more than 29,000 cars a day move through the intersection already, and that drive-thrus tend to generate more traffic, but rather draw business from people who are already in the area for work, shopping or other reasons. Cars idling in a drivethru emit fewer emissions than cars driving by on the busy roads or on the expressway some 450 metres away, he said.

Coun. Paul Singh, in whose ward the restaurant is planned, said he was supporting the zone change “reluctantly.”

“I don’t see a clear path,” Singh said, noting that current zoning allows a gas station and a drive-thru car wash. Gas stations can include small accessory convenience stores or mini takeouts such as Tim Hortons, Singh noted, so that the city wouldn’t have much of a leg to stand on in denying the application.

“It would essentially be a worse situation that it is now,” Singh said. A gas station would have noise and the risk of contamination “and cause the same issues of a drive-thru as would be caused by an A&W.”

“I share the same frustration,” said Coun. Dave Schnider, noting that none of the other nearby drive-thrus abutted homes. “I want to find a balance” he said, but he didn’t know how. “We have residents that have been taxpayers for years. They need to be considered as well.”

Singh asked the developer if he would consider putting in a soundproofing wall rather than a wooden fence, but Kooh said that would cost about eight times as much. “I think eight times the cost is a little too much to bear, considering the cost of the other things we had to go through to get to this point.”