The owner of a popular Italian restaurant in downtown Vancouver is speaking out over what he calls unreasonable red tape and regulatory challenges from the city. Emad Yacoub of Glowbal Restaurant Group says the city is requiring him to remove the Tuscan-inspired pergola over his patio at Italian Kitchen. The pergola was installed during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow for outdoor dining space, at a cost of $100,000. Yacoub says removing it will result in a loss of revenue. “If it rains, they are not going to be sitting in the rain and people book it because they want to have this Tuscan feel,” explains Yacoub. The process of removing the structure began Friday, despite what Yacoub thought was a victory that would allow it to stay. He says he won his appeal at the Board of Variance—an independent council that hears and adjudicates variances to zoning bylaws—last year. “Seven to one, keep it,” Yacoub says, recounting the vote. And yet, he says his landlord received notice from the city stating that if the pergola was not removed, he would lose his lease in the building. In a statement to CTV News, the City of Vancouver says it has been “working with the building owner to achieve compliance and has not required the removal pergola or patio while the permitting process is ongoing.” The city later said it did not send a notice to the landlord as tenant/landlord relationships are outside its jurisdiction. “We are continuing to work with the owner on a solution,” a spokesperson wrote. ‘Less vibrancy’ Jane Talbot, the CEO of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, says the removal of the pergola compromises the city’s restaurant scene. “It’s beautiful, it adds so much to the streetscape,” she says. “It’s booked weeks in advance.” Talbot adds other restaurants are moving out of Vancouver to places where the permitting processes are more streamlined. “When that happens, we have less vibrancy, we have less choices for people, we have less of a brand for our city. We have less of everything,” says Talbot. Yacoub has opened Glowbal restaurants in Toronto and Edmonton, where he says the process has been significantly easier. “When I flew to Edmonton to go through the space, a representative of the city came in to welcome us to the city,” he says. He also scrapped the opening of Gigi’s in downtown Vancouver because of what he calls unreasonable upgrades required by the city. “Some of the stair sizes are not matching the new codes, all this stuff, so when you put a building like this, that was $36 million,” says Yacoub. The city did not confirm the accuracy of Yacoub’s complaints or the purported costs to fix the issues with the Gigi’s space, citing a lack of details about the proposal. “Generally, permit requirements are determined based on the scope of a proposed project and applicable building and safety regulations,” the city’s statement reads.
