RESTRICTIVE DOWNTOWN BYLAW OPPOSED IN MISSION

Is special land-use zoning designed to clean up Mission's downtown core
high-handed, moralistic or discriminatory?

Proposed changes to zoning bylaws for a strip of Mission's First Avenue are
setting up an interesting battle that could reverberate throughout the
Fraser Valley and beyond.

The zoning proposal, which would prohibit certain types of businesses or
agencies from setting up shop in Mission's downtown core, comes from a
community that recognizes an immediate need to clean up the problems of
drugs and crime.

Many argue the slow death of Mission's downtown core is a result of
expanded commercial districts being set up in other areas of the municipality.

The drive to rejuvenate the area came from local business owners - the
Mission Downtown Business Association - and they have the ears of district
councillors and residents at large.

In an effort to make Mission's downtown more inviting to families and
shoppers, agencies and businesses that often draw a seedier clientele are
being moved out of the heart of the city.

Brian Stokes, president of the MDBA, addressed district council and a crowd
of about 30 at the start of the public hearing Tuesday into special zoning
for the downtown core.

"This bylaw is based on the need of the downtown," he said.

"We're trying to make downtown a better place for everyone," Stokes
explained. "We aren't treating anybody as second-class citizens."

District council has proposed - and is hearing public comment on - the
banning of: adult entertainment, adult entertainment stores, adult video
stores, arcades, body rub parlours, cheque-cashing stores, correctional
group homes, escort services, pawnbrokers, tattoo shops, homeless shelters,
soup kitchens and drop-in centres from the downtown core. They would not be
allowed to set up shop anywhere in the three blocks along First Avenue
between Horne and Grand streets.

Those already in place along the three-block strip would be allowed to
stay. But as soon as they closed for more than six months, they'd be
considered gone and not allowed to reopen.

But at the public hearing Tuesday in Mission council chambers one speaker
warned a battle hinges on the issues of human rights and the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Quoting the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, paralegal Lee Hanlon told
councillors, "Every individual is equal before the law."

Hanlon added, "What is happening here is discrimination. . . . If this
bylaw goes through on the soup kitchens, we will be going to court. And I
will be leading."

Council has been hearing on each business or agency type individually but
time ran out without council getting a chance to hear comments on many
other businesses or agencies that will be included in the bylaw amendment.

Hanlon suggested the separation of all the business or agency types into a
series of individual zoning bylaw amendments was a political tactic that
was "unfair."

Public comment - mostly against the special zoning - started in earnest
when Michael Knight stepped up to the podium and asked, "If these
businesses are unacceptable downtown, what would make them acceptable in
other areas of the community?"

Sean Jodway, a Mission law student, took issue with cheque-cashing stores
being barred from opening new outlets in the downtown core.

"It's discriminatory against people who can't use a bank. It's
exclusionary," he said.

He too said he would ask the courts to set aside the special zoning amendments.

Jodway said the amendments are unconstitutional, are discriminatory and
that "the municipality has exceeded its delegated jurisdiction."

Still others wanted to know why the proposed special zone was stopping at
Grand Street and didn't go further west.

"I'm a bit puzzled why the Bellevue (Hotel) is not included in that
downtown core," Sieglinde Stieda asked.

Robert Ross, the district's director of development, told the woman that
the historical zoning boundary was at Grand Street.

District administrator Glen Robertson said areas surrounding the First
Avenue strip will be visited after this zone is completed.

None of that, however, fazed Mission Mayor Abe Neufeld who said, "We're
testing it with the public at this point."

Neufeld told the crowd the bylaw amendments have made it through
examinations by municipal lawyers.

Tuesday was just the beginning. The public hearing continues at 7 p.m.
April 29 at district hall.