The love for Columbia Gardens and its resident restaurant, Huckleberry’s Café, was contagious as Trail city council caught that affectionate feeling and approved a service commercial licence for the location at their Aug. 20 regular meeting.
Over one month ago 40 people turned out to show the love they had for Huckleberry’s Café.
Most of the people who appeared for the July 16 public meeting supported a move to grant a permanent service commercial C7C licence to the popular restaurant—located at 8195 Old Waneta Road on Columbia Gardens land.
Huckleberry’s had been operating under a temporary commercial use permit for its establishment for the last four years, but since the property was zoned service commercial (C7)—and eating establishments are not listed as a permitted use—the café had been able to operate under a temporary commercial use permit (TCUP).
The only major issue that could have stopped the licence was parking, with on-street parking being a necessity due to the compressed nature of the business lot and the neighbourhood.
The availability of parking to serve the greenhouse and the café were limited during peak season, “creating a nuisance for the residential properties nearby,” read a city staff report to council.
The restaurant—managed by Carole Dasti—has used the property owned by Bill Garnett, alongside Columbia Valley greenhouses for four years.
A TCUP was issued for the first three years of its operation but it can only be renewed once. And since the TCUP for Huckleberry’s was renewed in 2010, a rezoning of the property was required to allow the operation to continue. The proposed change could allow the café to extend its hours past the 9 p.m. restriction in place with the TCUP.