A Cambridge paintball business says it's not trying to make an end-run around city rules.
That said, the owners of Flag Raiders paintball have requested a minister's zoning order which would by-pass the city and allow it to operate once again on its Kossuth Road property.
"We are not trying to circumvent the process," said Flag Raiders' co-owner Corey Kimpson. "We understand that there's a process, we have been through it many times before, and we entered into the process with the City of Cambridge last year to go through and try and figure out a way through this and to get operation recognizing what we bring to the community."
Flag Raiders has owned the property on Kossuth Road for more than two decades and it did used to operate there as well under a temporary-use exemption
That exemption though was not renewed after area neighbours complained to the city about noise from the property.
"We did that twice, we had two temporary use by-laws," said Kimpson. "When it came time to apply for the third there was a different planning commissioner at the city, there were also some new neighbours in the area, and we had also had a large national event."
Kimpson acknowledges that event was loud and disruptive.
"We were asked to do another one and we said no but, at that point, some of the neighbours didn't want us there."
That was back in 2008 and Flag Raiders has since been seeking a new temporary-use agreement from the city after it was once again forced to move from its temporary home at Bingemans when its lease came to an end.
"It finally got to the point where we need to get open, we want to get open and contribute to the community, and requesting a minister's zoning order is one of the tools in the planning tool box to help move that along when you have a use that may not cleanly fit into the black-and-white of planning policy," Kimpson said.
But even the application for an MZO comes with a snag as the minister currently responsible for Municipal Affairs and Housing has said he won't green light any requests without the support of local council.
"And that's sort of where we are at an impasse right now," said Kimpson. "We submitted our request to the city and to council on March 18th and it wasn't until this past Monday, May 2nd, that it was actually properly acknowledged."
"So there's been quite a delay."
In the meantime, a public meeting is on the Cambridge council schedule for May 17 to allow anyone with concerns about granting a new temporary-use exemption to speak up.
"So we have that meeting on the 17th however the concern is some of the neighbours are opposed to us operating and we really hope that we're going to have the opportunity to speak with them and see if there's a way that we can work things out," Kimpson said.
"We're citizens of this community, we've lived here all of our whole lives, I'd like to think that we're community builders, and I'd like to think that there's a way that we can work through this together and I'd really like to have that chance to hear from the neighbours and see if there's a way that we can do this."
