Opposition to zoning change may trip up MEC

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Zoning, not the questionable fairness of the tax-free money Mountain Equipment Co-op can draw on to fund its expansion, is shaping into the big hurdle now facing its proposed new store in North Vancouver.

It was concern about MEC’s tax status that first prompted six North Shore bicycle shop owners to object to MEC’s proposal to open a bigger store on Brooksbank Avenue, not far from an existing small outlet.

As I’ve detailed in periodic columns over the last three years, as a co-op MEC can retain tax-free what are technically patronage dividends earned by its 3.2 million owner-members, most of whom don’t even know this pool of money exists. These retained funds add up to a 10-figure war chest that has helped to fuel MEC’s rapid growth as the dominant retailer of outdoor goods in most of the cities it serves.

The bike shops in the City and District of North Van banded together to object because they worry that a huge new store built with tax-free money would have an unfair advantage that could marginalize their operations, which is just what other outdoor retailers say has happened to them as a result of MEC’s huge anchor store in Vancouver. The existing North Van store doesn’t sell or repair bicycles, a new service at MEC, but the new store will.

Nonetheless, North Van City council voted 5-2 on Nov. 8 to send the issue to a town-hall meeting for comment. Although this sounds like a neutral move, Coun. Rod Clark says it’s a big deal for proponents to get to this step because they can then drum up supporters to stack the audience in their favour.

Clark, one of the two councillors who voted against the town-hall meeting motion, says the coalition of opponents is now broadening to include many who aren’t involved in the bicycle trade, and "there’s a huge zoning issue."

The result of this more broadly based concern is that the issue is to be brought back to the council table on Dec. 6, where Clark hopes it will be turned down cold.

MEC has already bought a parcel of land that was formerly industrial and had just been rezoned for multi-use light industry to accommodate what Clark describes as "a mini-industrial park" for small manufacturers and distributors.

Both North Van’s community plan and a Metro Vancouver plan that is in the midst of an approval process put priority on protecting industrial land — an increasingly scarce commodity in cities like Vancouver and North Van where both residential and retail land command a much higher price.

If MEC gets the rezoning it seeks, Clark said, the value of its newly acquired land will soar, probably to more than double what it’s worth with industrial zoning.

But the community will suffer, he said. It will get only lower value retail jobs instead of higher value industrial ones.

MEC has said its new store, if it goes ahead, will employ 75 people, the equivalent of 60 full-time jobs, "at well above average pay rates for the retail sector." That’s up from 24 employees at MEC’s existing North Van store.

"But we already have lots of retail," Clark said. "But we don’t have much industrial land that isn’t in use … .

"If you drive by the industrial land that is being used, some of it for heavier industry, you’ll see the kinds of jobs involved.

"These are good quality jobs. They’re what built our community."

dcayo@vancouversun.com To comment, visit Don Cayo’s blog at vancouversun.com/cayo