The president of the agency Orange Group Commercial Real EstateGrant Kosowan, explains that the imposition of social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic has given a boost to ordering and drive-thru in restaurants.
In fact, in a report on Calgary’s spring retail outlook, real estate group JLL indicates that rental of retail space for fast food outlets jumped there as leasing activity in the downtown Alberta is struggling to regain its pre-pandemic level.
However, Grant Kosowan regrets that Calgary gives, according to him, less importance to spaces intended for the drive-thru service in the city’s development plan.
The expert in commercial real estate even says that he has noticed, during his two decades of experience, the limitation by the municipality of their construction. It has always been very difficult for quick service restaurants to get space in the Calgary market. […] So that drove up the price [de location] drive-thru in Calgary
he says.
Grant Kosowan has therefore come to interpret that City Council does not consider drive-thru to be in Calgary’s best interests. They want things they think are appropriate for the Calgary market, whether it’s bike lanes or whatever.
he believes.
The municipality fights back
According to a 2018 University of Alberta report, Calgary enacted a partial drive-through ban in 2007 through the passage of new land use regulations.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the city’s planning department explains that the said by-law rather determines the framework under which drive-thru services are authorized in certain parts of the city.
We have many shopping districts where drive-thru is permitted
he says, adding that neighborhoods that do not include drive-thrus are generally pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods
.
Head of the city’s community planning department, Scott Lockwood, says Calgary has no drive-thru strategy.
Data reported to Radio-Canada by its service, however, shows only one new drive-thru permit has been issued so far this year, compared to 12 permit approvals in 2019.
Scott Lockwood says the City is trying to limit the proliferation of drive-thrus in areas where walking and transit are a priority.
Flexibility and Convenience
Either way, drive-thru is still a convenient option, especially for people with special needs like Christina Gail. She is the mother of a two-year-old child and suffers from a physical disability. Drive-thru isn’t just a convenient option, she says, it also saves lives.
” I know a friend who has been in a wheelchair for a while. Even though he could get in and out of the car on his own and then get out of his wheelchair, [il faut reconnaître que] it was still more complicated. »
Christina Gail also explains that she would always choose to use the driving service rather than waking her child from a nap to go to the restaurant.
She also says she has found that, compared to her neighborhood in northwest Calgary, new developments in the city, particularly in the southeast where she often visits family, have fewer places offering service. driving.
The lecturer at the University mount-royal Kris Hans is optimistic. He believes flexible options like drive-thru are here to stay, even after COVID-19 because, he says, people like flexibility.
With files from Kylee Pedersen
Reference-ici.radio-canada.ca