Brewery Lounge Non-Enforcement Extension
Motion 26 · Council Meeting, March 31, 2026
Summary
- Extended for two years the policy of not enforcing zoning restrictions that limit brewery lounge floor space, to allow time for permanent zoning amendments.
- Only two operators took up the pilot over the previous two years; staff attributed low uptake partly to operator uncertainty about the path to permanent change.
- Staff committed to bringing zoning and development amendments by approximately Q3 2027; Councillor Kirby-Yung pressed for faster timelines given the five-year cumulative duration of the non-enforcement approach.
Vote
Transcript
10 segments
Yeah, thanks, Mayor. The question that I had, and I also sent this one into staff, but I wanted to ask it here to be clear about it, is that I understand that what is being proposed in this report is an extension of the non-enforcement sort of approach to better enabling breweries to expand their serving areas with respect to the floor space. It's been about three years so far. I think about a year of getting started in terms of engagement with the hospitality sector. We formed a group. We had meetings with the craft brewers. We've had a two-year resolution, and now we're proposing. another two-year one so I guess my question to staff is but is there not a way to do this work faster so it doesn't take five years for changes I know that staff cited that there's other work I'm sorry this is a long preamble to the question but I also and I know that they said there's two establishments that took up this opportunity but it is limited to operators not having to that can't don't have to undertake any sort of changes or modifications and within inside their buildings and doing renovations and I wonder if that was an impediment there because I don't see operators wanting to invest unless they have certainty so a bit of a two-part question there but I'm I guess I'm looking for is there a simpler way to get somewhere versus taking five years to make a change that supports the craft brewers in our city
Yes, Chris Robertson, Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability, Director of Citywide and Regional Planning. To answer the first question about take-up, yes, obviously the take-up might have been influenced by somebody putting an investment into something that may or may not go down a path that they were, you know, thinking it would. So that was a risk and certainly could have affected them. Having said that, we were really intending for that pilot to allow us to better understand kind of the things that applicants and operators were looking for. And as part of that, that was going to help probably simplify our work. Well, I can say it would have simplified our work. And so that's, you know, it is what it is. We are committed to doing this work and that commitment I'm, you know, reinforcing here today will be part of future work programs that are underway.
I appreciate that. I'm just going to jump in just because I'm short for time. But if you said we had hoped to learn, but we didn't, what are we going to learn by taking another two years? What do you need?
Well, I guess what that's doing is it's allowing us to do the work that might have been more efficiently done having heard directly from operators. So now we're going to have to go out and spend a bit more time ourselves doing the research that might have been supplied by that pilot program.
Okay, and it has to take two years?
No, and so that's what I want to say. We're extending it for two years now, but our expectation is that by 2027, Q3 possibly, we will have amendments, if that's where it goes, to zoning and development to support larger lounges. Again, we'll be looking at that.
Okay. Thanks. I appreciate the answers to questions. I will support the report. I just I know that we've really tried to expedite a lot of changes that have material benefit to different establishments. And we've done things like modernizing liquor regulations and aligning reducing business license types and putting permitting online. And I think some great work has been done in that. These are the kinds of things that I think do make a difference. I suspect in my conversations with some potential operators, they would be interested in taking it up, but they don't have any tolerance for risk right now in such huge areas of pressure and affordability. So I'm just hoping that we can move the work along and maybe perhaps there are opportunities along the way to do it more quickly than a year and a half if it's Q3 potentially, but I just want to ask those questions. Thank you.
Okay, seeing no one else in the queue, would someone like to move a motion?
Okay, Councillor Kirby-Young, seconded by Councillor Zhou. I think you had your hand up. Councillor, any discussion? Seeing no one else in the queue, I'm now going to call the vote. Please go to the voting panel.
And that passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Did we cover the referral reports?