Patchwork opposition doesn’t stop quilt shop permit

CBS council has approved an application to open a quilt shop at 2639 Topsail Road in Chamberlains, but not without some opposition.

The location is the Masonic Lodge Building across the street from the intersection with Chamberlains Road.

Two members of council declared a conflict of interest on the matter and did not participate in the vote. Ward 3 councillor Gerard Tilley explained he has a family member who lives on a street behind the building. Deputy Mayor Andrea Gosse said she has a relative who rents space to a quilt shop that is also in CBS. 

Councillor Rex Hillier, who chairs council’s planning and development committee, said his group was recommending approval of the discretionary use application.

“We received a fair amount of response when we advertised for comment on this,” Hillier noted. “Most of it dealt with the competition that would exist as a result of other quilt shops in the community, and that’s really not something we can get involved with. That’s the basis of private enterprise, so really those comments were not part of our decision-making process.”

In other development news:

Council approved three discretionary use permits for fences and rejected one.

Hillier singled out one of the applications, for 17-19 Dominic Drive, off Cole Thomas Drive in Upper Gullies, for an explanation as to why it was approved.

“This is sort of a unique situation in that we are putting a fence in front of one of our playgrounds in a new development,” said Hillier. “And the reason why we’re doing that is that the development is only half finished, and we’ve got construction taking place in the neighbourhood. So, we want to make that new playground as safe as possible.”

In the case of the rejected permit, for a front yard fence at 5 Tampa Drive, Hillier explained the application failed to meet any of the Town’s criteria for front yard fences.

“It does not border a public walkway, it does not constitute a retaining wall, does not delineate adjoining driveways, nor is there an established form of front yard fence along the street,” Hillier said, reading from the regulations. 

The covey of fence applications led Mayor Darrin Bent to worry aloud, jokingly, about the state of relations between the town’s residents. “I hope all these fence applications are not a sign our residents are starting to (fall out),” he said.

“There are lots of good neighbours, sir,” Hillier responded in a similar vein, before quoting a line from Robert Frost’s famous poem, The Mending Wall. “Good fences make good neighbours.”