A proposal to expand the Steinbach Deluxe Bowl building along Brandt Street has been rejected by city council. A man from Winkler applied for a variance to extend the front of the building by 106 feet, right up to the front sidewalk, to accommodate an optometry clinic. The variance asked the city to reduce the required number of parking stalls from 28 to 19.

Lawyer David Banman, representing six area businesses and homeowners, spoke against the plan.

"The main issue in granting a variance here is that there is no on-street parking anywhere. In addition, there is a crosswalk nearby. And, there's only one means of access (to the parking lot), ingress and egress, that's onto the highway, which already is troublesome at best. In addition, where that parking would go would be another question. I have a couple of clients on First Street. As council knows, that's a transitonal area that already has quite a few different home-based businesses. If you drive down that street any day of the week, you'll see it's chock-full of cars already, I don't think there really is much capacity for anymore cars to be added to that area."

Two other neighbouring business owners expressed similar concerns and noted they already get spillover parking from the bowling alley.

Deputy Mayor Michael Zwaagstra moved to deny the variance.

"We heard loud and clearly from the neighbouring businesses and residences that parking is a major issue there already, as far as the number of parking stalls. And, to add another business and have a reduced amount of parking available, just didn't seem like an appropriate fit. When you add to it the fact that the applicant wasn't at the public hearing to make a presentation and to answer questions and to address concerns, that also made it pretty clear that this was not something that we were interested in approving."

City council was unanimous in denying the variance which kills the expansion plan.

Mayor Earl Funk says city council wants to be business-friendly, but this plan is simply not workable.

"That is a very busy corner and we just can't bring more congestion there. We do want to see development, we want to see our economy grow, but we cannot do that without being safe and without making sure there is parking for all of the customers who come."