A suburban parking problem has been resolved temporarily, now that a Cookie's Ice Cream van has found another place to park, other than Brooke Alexander’s driveway.
Alexander runs Cookie's Ice Cream and said on Facebook Tuesday night that after complaints from a neighbour, city bylaws said she can no longer park the Cookie's Ice Cream truck in her driveway.
“Unfortunately, even though this truck brings more joy (and treats!) to our community than headaches, we’ve been given until Nov 15 to move it,” Alexander said.
However, another temporary spot has been found for the truck in the meantime.
Alexander said she's received lots of support, but bylaws has been contacting them for the last two months, adding she doesn't want to criticize bylaws who is just following procedure.
“For us, it's more of a, who is this impacting? Who is it impacting to have this parked here and the answer is nobody.”
Many contractors park their vehicles at home at night, she added.
They've been parking the bright pink food truck there for about a year and there's also a food trailer in the yard, which can remain.
The truck is still insured and just awaiting the warmer months from March to October to get back on the road.
“They're beautiful, brand new maintained, fully wrapped. Yes, they're pink, but they're not offensive. It's ice cream,” Alexander said.
Coun. Dylan Kruger weighed in on the social media post Tuesday night as well.
“I’ll be bringing forward a motion to allow small business owners to park their vehicle at home, when they need to. I will always support Delta business owners, especially the ones that make ice cream,” he said online.
One resident though pointed out this could see semi-truck trailers parked in residential neighbourhoods.
But Kruger said he was talking about “reasonable exceptions to the bylaw for existing local businesses with appropriate Fraser Health and ICBC licences.”
Kruger will bring forward a notice of motion for council Nov. 18 to discuss the zoning bylaw at a later meeting, asking staff to come back with recommendations on changing the bylaw to allow local business owners to park their vehicles at home.
“A commonsense change to the bylaw to support existing small businesses that are struggling in our community,” he explained.
Limits on weight and size however would be part of the change.
“It's empowering our bylaw officers to apply more common sense when these situations arise,” Kruger said.
