A workout for the head and heart

Debbie Stagg speaks to city council's planning committee.

It's not unusual for a city council to bend or suspend the usual zoning rules when presented with an emotionally compelling case.

Those of us lucky enough to be at the Chamber of Commerce's 2006 Awards of Excellence Gala still fondly remember MC and former councillor Chris Puddicombe's comic retelling of council's from-the-heart decision to allow a hot dog stand on King Street, much to the consternation of taxpaying restaurant owners.

Some might argue another from-the-heart decision faces council tomorrow night, when it holds a final vote over a proposed gym in the industrial park.

Debbie Stagg and Lisa Cassidy have applied for zoning bylaw and official plan amendments to open a health and fitness club inside a section of the former Purolator building.

The women aim to open a Snap Fitness franchise, which would run 24 hours a day, seven days a week and cater to shift workers in the north-end industrial park.

City officials recommended council reject the plan.

The industrial park is meant for industry, not commercial businesses, they argue. And the women should not be allowed to undercut other commercial gym operators by purchasing land at lower industrial-zone rates.

But Stagg and Cassidy make a compelling case. So much so that councillor and planning committee member Mike Kalivas describes them as “entrepreneurs doing what they do best.”

The heart definitely sides with the proponents here: two local women trying to make a go of it with what sounds like a novel idea.

But the very novelty of their idea suggests this is more than a from-the-heart decision over the 2014 equivalent of a hot dog stand on King Street.

The novelty I refer to can best be summed up in Councillor David Beatty's comments at last week's planning committee meeting.

Beatty pointed out the current zoning would allow every industrial building in the north-end park to set up its own gym for its employees, but will not allow one commercial gym to serve them all.

“Logically, I would think it would be more efficient to have one serving 40 than to have 40 doing so on their own,” said Beatty.

Similarly, when the committee asked the women's lawyer, David Reid, about the matter of the cheaper industrial land, his reply was that any of the other gyms in town are free to attempt what his clients are doing: start a round-the-clock health club servicing the industrial park.

Council decisions are best made with a reasonable mixture of the head and the heart.

The heart component of council's vote is all about these two local women trying to make a go of it in business, creating jobs in the process, and city hall not standing in their way by doing things strictly by the book.

The “head” component is a lot more interesting. It's all about whether the book needs to be amended.

If this 24-hour gym is truly a service to the manufacturers in the industrial park and their employees; if in fact it's the kind of add-on that might even attract a small manufacturer or two to some other vacant spot on California Avenue; then maybe it should have been included in the official plan and zoning in the first place, as an ancillary use.

For us civic affairs geeks, that kind of debate counts as a workout.

And you can follow it all tomorrow night when I live-tweet it at www.recorder.ca.

If you're interested in catching it live, you can get the agenda here.