CELPIP Reading Part 4 Practice Test: Corner Stores in Residential Neighbourhoods Debate

For seven decades, anyone hoping to open a shop in Ashbury’s residential neighbourhoods has encountered the same obstacle: the zoning bylaw forbids it. A motion now before city politicians would permit small shops and cafés of up to 150 square metres on corner lots throughout this Ontario city’s residential areas. Businesses would close by 10 p.m., drive-throughs would be prohibited and, unlike commercial-street premises, they would need no parking.

Councillor Priya Raman, the motion’s sponsor, characterizes it as a correction, not a revolution. Pre-war neighbourhoods, she notes, retain houses that were obviously once grocery stores, shops that vanished because regulations changed, not because demand evaporated. “Today a senior who no longer drives needs two buses to purchase a loaf of bread,” she says. Gas stations and supermarkets are not contemplated, she adds; this is “the corner shop your grandparents walked to.”

Doug Feeney, chair of the Glenholme Homeowners’ Association, raises practical objections: customers circling for parking, delivery trucks idling at seven in the morning, and uncertainty over which tenants might materialize. “Everyone imagines a charming café, and I’d probably be one of its regulars,” he remarks, “but zoning can’t distinguish it from an outlet selling lottery tickets and vapes until two in the morning.” Reminded of the 10 p.m. closing, he yielded the point, adding that regulations “have a way of being relaxed.”

Hana Kowalczyk, proprietor of a main-street bakery for twelve years, welcomes the idea while doubting its practical consequences. Insurance, equipment and staffing cost identical amounts anywhere, she calculates, and corners attract a fraction of the passing trade. “In most neighbourhoods, the economics would simply fail.” Her larger apprehension is that the rare successes could divert customers from main streets already afflicted with vacant storefronts.

Dr. Samuel Osei, who teaches urban planning at a nearby university, has examined comparable reforms elsewhere. Corner shops do reduce short car trips, but only where sufficient households live within a brief walk: older wards with narrow lots and garage apartments can sustain one, while a suburban crescent’s store would probably languish. He recommends a two-year trial in the three densest wards before any citywide decision. Mayor Tom Reddick is awaiting the public consultation.

I have lived in the east end for sixty years, and I find Councillor Raman’s own framing persuasive: this motion is 6. Choose…a danger to established merchantsturning back the clocka recipe for parking woesa gamble best tested first. Since surrendering my car, fetching milk consumes most of a morning. Mr. Feeney frets about vapes at two in the morning, but the motion already 7. Choose…bans gambling productsdemands off-street spotsconfines shops to downtownbans such hours.

Still, Ms. Kowalczyk raises what supporters ignore: on a side street, running costs 8. Choose…shrink on a quiet corner lotmatter less than the parkingswallow any marginfall once regulars appear. That is why I favour Dr. Osei’s suggestion of 9. Choose…testing the likeliest wardsprohibiting stores in outer areaswaiting for City Hall’s hearinglimiting shops to bakeries. And who knows? Mr. Feeney may discover, as he half admits, that 10. Choose…an idling delivery trucka late-night vape outletthe café he imaginesthe bakery on the main street makes a rather pleasant neighbour. I’d be there every morning.