The owner of a Port Coquitlam strip mall pleaded his case for a drive-thru Starbucks at Monday's city council meeting.
Bill Harris spoke to council as a delegation with the support of about a dozen mall tenants at the meeting — all of whom "have suffered greatly" since CIBC vacated the anchor building two years ago, he said. The strip mall is located at the northeast corner of Coast Meridian Road and Prairie Avenue.
But while councillors were sympathetic to the retailers' plight, they were split on whether to allow the bid for a drive-thru cafe given the mall design.
Instead, after a 30-minute debate that resulted in three mixed votes, city council agreed to defer the application to after the summer break.
Last month, the city's smart growth committee — chaired by Coun. Glenn Pollock, who was not at Monday's council meeting — unanimously rejected the rezoning concept by Harvest Developments, saying the proposal would jam up the increasingly busy Coast Meridian/Prairie intersection and make access difficult.
But on Monday, council was undecided how to proceed and defeated motions to return it to committee, defeat it or move it to public hearing. Council is due to reconsider at its Sept. 14 council meeting.
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