Another fight is brewing between Richmond city council and Onni Group — only this time, the developer is on the outside of the ring looking in.
The protagonists in this bout, are the owners of Steveston-based Generation Daycare, Mike and Agnes Lewis, and their parent clientele.
The daycare owners were given notice in April by their landlord at their current site on 12320 Trites Road, just southwest of No. 2 Road and Moncton Street, that they needed to vacate on Sept. 30, as the site was being demolished ahead of a bid to rezone from light industrial to residential to allow 30 single-family units to be built.
Since then, Mike and Agnes have been scouring the community for a replacement site and have been working with City of Richmond staff on finding a new location that would allow them to continue to offer before- and after-school care.
And when city staff “surprisingly” directed them towards Onni and its many vacant Imperial Landing rental properties on Bayview Street on Steveston’s waterfront, Mike thought he was onto a winner.
“Knowing the history between Onni and the city, I was surprised (the city suggested Onni), and I didn’t want to get into the middle of their fight; but I was told ‘maybe you should give them a call’ and was given the numbers for Onni,” said Mike.
“And as there seems to be no other space in Steveston and even the closest ones — at Steveston Highway and No. 5 Road and at Westminster (Highway) and No. 2 Road — are unsuitable on many levels, I thought I might as well contact Onni.”
Onni and city council have been at loggerheads for more than 10 years over the Mixed Maritime Use (MMU) zoning at the site, which the developer has been trying in vain to amend to allow for non-maritime businesses to rent their properties.
There is, however, an education component to the MMU zoning and the daycare owners and Onni, according to Mike, came to an agreement to rent the 5,600 square foot space. And, in order to comply with the MMU education component, Generation Daycare was going to rebrand with a maritime theme and incorporate Steveston’s maritime heritage into its programs.
Unfortunately, according to the city, it wasn’t enough to meet the zoning’s educational standards, which states any programing must be a K-12 program licenced under the School Act.
As such, Generation’s business license application for the Onni site was denied and the owners, along with several of their parent customers, will present their case in person at an appeal hearing in front of mayor and council on June 27.
“We totally rebranded, changed our logo to call it the Generation Maritime Centre and were willing to do things that brought Steveston’s maritime heritage into our programs,” explained Mike.
“Things such as bringing people in to do talks on the history, for example.
“But it was felt that it didn’t fall enough under the educational component of the zoning; their definition of education falls under the School Act. We’re a learning centre, which doesn’t fall under the Act.
“But we’ve been doing a little bit of research, and many businesses in Steveston have had amendments to their zoning.”
Ahead of next week’s make-or-break appeal at city hall, Agnes has been busy working on an improved business plan, steeped even more in Steveston’s maritime history, in a desperate bid to convince city council to make a concession for the 50 or so Homma elementary families that rely on their service.
“It’s a reasonable rent for the space and we would be able to take on more children from wait lists that already exist in the area,” Agnes told the Richmond News on Monday.
“We’re going to present (council) with a new business plan; with more maritime heritage education in the programing, including maritime field trips. The parents and children are going to be there also and will likely have something to say.
“It’s kind of (our last hope). It’s the only viable space in the area; everything else is already leased out or is unsuitable.
“The only other thing we can hope for is, if our current site is developed, the city makes the developer build a daycare for us to go in there, but that could be years down the line.”
City council, added Agnes, has to “consider the effect saying ‘no’ will have on the community.
“They’ve made adjustments to other business zonings across the city, but not for us with Onni.”
City spokesperson Ted Townsend said Generation’s business licence application was denied because the use they proposed, child care, is not permitted under the existing zoning.
“Staff does not have authority to override the bylaw definition,” said Townsend in an email to the News.
As of Tuesday, the daycare has collected about 350 e-signatures on a petition, urging the city to relax the rules.
Kevin Skipworth, whose eight-year-old son goes to the daycare, said it’s time for city council to put the parents and children first.
“This is childcare that needs to be provided in Steveston and it’s going to leave parents struggling to put their children into daycare,” said Skipworth on Tuesday.
“The city has the ability to relax that part of the zoning. I’ve been looking through development permits for the last few years in Steveston and there has been in the region of 200 to 250 new developments; that’s a lot of people and a lot of children and things have to change.
“There’s no space in Steveston, other than the Onni site. It fits and it’s not as if there needs to be a rezoning.”
Generation, said Skipworth, doesn’t just do before and after-school care, “they take the kids for the whole of July, pro-D days, some of Christmas and spring break.
“For all the parents that are both working or can’t afford to put their kids into expensive camps in the summer and holidays, this is a vital service.
“Council has the power to deal with this; they have to deal with this.”
Skipworth added that, should Generation’s bid to move into the Imperial Landing site be refused after appeal, he has no back-up plan for childcare in the fall.
“This is the only elementary age daycare in the area that takes kids to and from school; the others have waiting lists,” he said.
“Who knows, we may have to look at leaving the area.”
Onni’s Brendan Yee said he wasn’t authorized to comment.
No one else from the company contacted the News by press time.
