One of the city's largest neighbourhoods doesn't need a full-scale grocery store.

That's what city council heard from an area resident and the store's potential next-door neighbour, Herbie's Grocery, at its Monday evening meeting.

During a public input session into the conditional use application brought forward to build a Super A grocery store at 85 Wilson Dr. in the Granger subdivision, area resident Al Lyon told council the city had been used.

Two years ago, he recalled, a restaurant, Brown's Tap and Grill, had been proposed for the site. Residents like himself were worried the property would be rezoned from multiple residential to neighbourhood commercial, only to be turned over for another use or sold to someone else.

'That's exactly what has happened,' Lyon told council.

Now someone is proposing a use that would generate a very large amount of traffic, he said.

'Council has been used as a pawn by the original purchasers, who made a profit on reselling this lot to a second purchaser,' Lyon said.

A supermarket operates on enticing as many people there in a day as it can, he argued.

Shoppers going into the grocery store would be driving on what home owners on the street had originally understood to be a residential road, he said.

Lyon argued Herbie's, a convenience store and gas bar, has proved to be a good corporate citizen. Its customers don't have to use Wilson Drive to get into the store and many shoppers walk to the store anyway, he pointed out.

'This kind of an establishment that's proposing (to build) now is going to entice people from another thousand lots, and they're all going to drive,' Lyon said. 'That's a huge volume of traffic.'

When the application to rezone the property from multiple residential to neighbourhood commercial came forward, council saw fit to take the side of the developer rather than the adjacent neighbours who signed a petition against the rezoning, he said.

'Don't allow that to happen this time,' he said.

Herbie's co-owner, Dee Balsam, who was also defeated in her run for the mayoralty last October, argued opening a Super A next door to her store would ruin her business.

'We've been operating in that location, under the pretense when we first started ... that the adjacent lot was a multi-family residential,' she said. 'Of course, in our kind of business, some of the more density you can get, the better.'

Balsam didn't object to the rezoning for a restaurant because it was complimentary to the store.

'This particular application for a conditional use is not complimentary to our existing business,' she said. 'This use of this lot will basically kill our business.'

Super A owner Sam Jurovich has argued the Super A won't be competing directly with Herbie's because it won't have a gas bar.

However, Balsam said her store can't survive on gas sales alone.

'If Mr. Jurovich is not going to sell eggs and milk and bread, I'd be very surprised,' she said.

Coun. Bev Buckway asked her what impact a grocery store anywhere in Granger could have on her business.

Balsam replied, 'My personal opinion at this point in time is the actual subdivision isn't ready for a full-scale grocery store.'

Locating a grocery store anywhere in Granger, which began development in the mid-1980s, would have a detrimental effect on Herbie's, she said.

As Coun. Doug Graham pointed out though, that area is one of the city's most populated. Both Riverdale and Porter Creek, which have fewer residents, have Super A stores, the councillor noted.

Balsam argued many Granger residents do most of their grocery shopping downtown.

'They tend to use the Wal-Marts and they tend to use the (Real Canadian) Superstores rather than the small neighbourhood guy,' she said.

As Balsam concluded her presentation, a number of people sitting in the gallery applauded.

In his recent presentation to council, Jurovich noted the new 890-square-metre development, estimated to cost $2 million, would provide needed employment in the city and fill a need in the growing subdivision for a full-service grocery store.

After the meeting, Rob Fendrick, the city's director of administrative services, said seven letters both for and against the development have come to the city.

Next Monday, a report on the input will come forward to council. Council will vote on whether to allow the conditional use on March 22.