City council is moving ahead with amending the zoning bylaw to allow for standalone liquor stores to operate in a neighbourhood commercial zone.

Viridian Property Corp. applied for the amendment as Getty Foods is looking to open an off-sale liquor store. The owners currently have a liquor license from another location that is now closed.

The current bylaw only allows a liquor store in the neighbourhood commercial zone if it is attached to a restaurant.

Coun. Dawn Luhning said this issue has come up in the past when a pub wanted to open in the current location of the Petro-Can on Ninth Avenue Northwest.

"So this is reminiscent of my first term on council when a local pub wanted to go into that area and it was a resounding no from the residences in that area. So I find it interesting that this is coming up again because at that time I believe I was the only councilor here that voted in favour of putting that pub there and now here it is again," Luhning said.

The amendment would make standalone liquor stores discretionary, meaning application would have to go through city council before they can be approved.

"This is no different than all of the discretionary items we have in our zoning bylaw. Yeah, sometimes it is difficult to decide yay or nay on a particular item but the reason that those are is that every different application has various different factors to it," said Coun. Chris Warren.

There was some concern among the councilors over the number of licenses the province gives out and whether council would be overrun with discretionary use applications.

Regardless, council approved moving forward with the amendment with a unanimous vote.