A proposed bowling alley in Sooke has been a hot topic at council and in community Facebook pages. Now, the community will soon have a chance to weigh in.
A public hearing will be held at a Sooke council meeting on April 28 to discuss rezoning a presently residential property to make way for the bowling alley.
“If people have questions about the projects, we do want people to come out and ask. We’re happy to answer,” said project spokesperson Luis Almhanna.
“This is a project aimed at helping the community and giving them more to do – it’s community-focused, so we do want their input.”
Almhanna and his family arrived in Sooke in 2016 after fleeing the Syrian civil war.
The project is a family affair with Luis's father Ayman, who was an electrical engineer in Syria, and his uncle Bahaa, a medical doctor, also involved in the project.
Almhanna says the idea for a bowling alley came when they saw the success of Langford Lanes.
“We saw on the business side how successful the business was and on the community side how much of a community hub it was,” said Almhanna.
For him, the goal is for it to be a community hub.
“We’ll have food, we’ll have a bakery there. But we hope to extend and build it into a community centre more than just a bowling alley,” he said.
Despite the upcoming public hearing, the project's future is not certain. For the project to proceed, the Almhanna family needs to have a rezoning application for the proposed site at 6727 West Coast Rd. approved before they can acquire a development permit and begin official construction plans.
However, the family already has the ball rolling by undertaking surveys of the property to plan out the site and necessary facilities such as parking. Coun. Al Beddows highlighted the need for parking when the rezoning application was brought to council on March 24
“Where’s the parking plan? I’d love to have a bowling alley, I'd love to have a restaurant in town, but the applicant doesn’t really speak to the parking part of it other than it's downtown and everybody can walk and ride to it,” Beddows said during the meeting.
But Almhanna says parking will not be an issue.
“The lot is quite big, and the amount of land we're building on is only 60 per cent, so we have about 40 per cent to use for parking.”
So far, Almhanna says the community response has been quite positive.
“They want something to do in the community, and they’re excited about something local that’s good for the kids, that’s good for older people, that’s good for working families, and that’s somewhat affordable as well.”
The public hearing is set for Monday, April 28 at Sooke Municipal Hall, where Almhanna will take questions from the public and present some more information on his vision for the project.
