Rookie council swayed by drama

Does time go too fast for you?

Are there not enough hours in the day?

Come to Coldstream...where time not only stands still, clocks turn backwards.

In a public meeting to re-re-consider closing hours at Highlands Golf, council voted 4-2 against the application to close at 11 p.m.

Councillor Cochrane—who heads the community’s Economic Development committee—and Councillor Kiss saw through what I can only describe as a smoke-and-mirrors presentation by a neighbour’s solicitor and the group’s allies.

Not wanting to place any Highlands’ patrons in the line of fire, I discouraged—with thanks—supporters from speaking on behalf of my application, which one brave soul ignored.

If I rebutted every comment, I knew it would ultimately prove that this—like many relationships with neighbours—had not grown beyond the pissing match level.

Yet if a defensive response wasn’t adopted, the reputation of Highlands Golf—indeed mine as owner operator—would surely be severely compromised.

Catch 22 if I’ve ever seen one.

So I rebutted, which served to relegate the pissing match to new heights.

Because I had to...for me, for my reputation...for Highlands Golf.

The next morning, when Councillor Enns telephoned me I thanked him for his call and admitted no surprise at the hearing’s outcome. In fact, I told him council as a whole was a “good mix” of people. I resisted the urge to add that Council needs more experience.

The effect on Highlands Golf of again having to close “2 hours after sunset, based on Canada Meteorological charts” will be substantial. Despite written text in the zoning bylaw that clubhouse operations are ancillary to a golf course operation, neighbour issues against clubhouse increased hours were: “why? So the party can continue and more alcohol served?”

The effect on my business plan was, after all, the basis for my 2002 appeal to council in asking that the Covenant be legally withdrawn. Hours were increased to 11 p.m. for six years. Or were they? Round and round we go, where this will stop nobody knows.

While I won’t feign surprise, having to publicly admit—on several occasions in the last two months—that Highlands Golf was in contravention of business hours was a strange and altogether foreign sensation.

The only analogy that springs to mind—and a bad one at that—is to have a child, and then set out to destroy its health...consciously. Waning vigor would be proof of success.

Councillor Enns concluded our phone conversation with “You can re-apply”.

(note to self: where is that incredulity icon? Is there an icon for self-mutilation?)

So, is the District of Coldstream open for business?

Yes.

If the business is slaughtering lambs.