CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. – A Campbellton business owner launched a petition asking the City of Campbell River to change parking bylaws in the area.
According to Dustin Schoock, he is not able to provide parking for his clients because there is not enough space.
Schoock owns the vape shop The Scene, as well as a laundromat in Campbellton. He recently applied for a license to operate a non-medical cannabis store.
According to him, he’s had a difficult time getting his license approved because he wouldn’t be able to provide parking to his customers.
“Because of the bylaw in Campbellton and because the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure owns and maintains the road in front of here – Highway 19 – the parking spaces in front of every business don’t count for the parking spaces available for the stores,” Schoock said.
He suspects that business renewing or applying for licenses will also have a hard time, as they will face the same issue he has.
“People renewing their business license or people trying to make business in Campbellton extremely difficult, if not impossible altogether, because they are unable to provide parking because the Ministry of Transportation doesn’t want to move the power lines, they don’t want to change the parking.”
Schoock’s petition requests that city council change the bylaw to better accommodate businesses in the area.
“Changing the bylaw would give the city more capability to change everything down here, parking being one of them and providing the stores the road parking.”
Schoock said he will bring the petition to the Campbellton Neighbourhood Association so they can in turn help bring it to city council.
“It’s literally pointing all of the businesses to the downtown core from Campbellton because no one can provide parking.”
The MyCampbellRiverNow.com newsroom has reached out to the city for comment, but they have not responded to us yet as of publication.
The petition can be found through this link.
