In a vote of four to three, St. John's city council approved two new drive-thrus in the Avalon Mall lot on Monday, despite environmental concerns about idling vehicles.

Mayor Danny Breen and councillors Debbie Hanlon, Sandy Hickman and Wally Collins voted in favour, while Deputy Mayor Sheilagh O'Leary and councillors Hope Jamieson and Maggie Burton voted against the drive-thrus. The remaining councillors were not at the meeting.

With people in St. John's set to participate in one of many global strikes for climate change on Friday, Burton said, it's important to respond "to this unprecedented uprising of youth globally to issues around the climate."

"We need to act now and act drastically" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonize as quickly as possible, said Burton.

"So little decisions, like whether or not a drive-thru is allowed, in the grand scheme of things are not going to make a big difference on our greenhouse gas emissions, but they certainly add up."

Staff recommended approval

The city's planning and development division recommended council approve the applications for the drive-thrus, at a coffee franchise and a bank, from national real estate company Crombie REIT. The drive-thrus are set to go east and west of the Avalon Mall access on Kenmount Road at Polina Road.

The intersection at Kenmount Road and Polina Road was realigned as part of a bigger construction effort in the area. Two new drive-thrus will be developed on the Avalon Mall lot near the intersection. (Danny Arsenault/CBC)

Four people sent the city emails opposing the proposed drive-thru at the coffee franchise, with each of them citing traffic concerns and three of them flagging the environmental concerns of pollution from idling vehicles. One person suggested St. John's should follow the example of the City of Minneapolis, which recently banned all new drive-thrus to reduce vehicle emissions.

Burton said she's asking staff to conduct another review of the drive-thrus "to tell us what a modernized recommendation might look like."

"I would be fully supportive of banning all new drive-thrus in the city, effective whenever we can, but I'm also open to considering some site-specific reductions of some kind," she said.

There are two tenants in each of the highlighted areas on Kenmount Road. (City of St. John's/Submitted)

Mayor says review 'doesn't hurt'

Breen said he voted in favour of the two new drive-thrus because they are in a commercial, not residential, area and won't interfere with traffic.

"We did some additional regulations for drive-thrus in residential areas a few years back and we implemented those regulations, but if a councillor wants to have another look at those that's fine. It doesn't hurt.

"If you want to look at the impacts in terms of idling and that, that's really an important issue and one that we can look at what's happening across Canada and see what council wants to do with it in the long term," said Breen, who plans to attend Friday's climate strike in St. John's.

Mayor Danny Breen says it made sense to approve the new drive-thrus, but says council can consider banning future drive-thrus if it wants to explore that. (Eddy Kennedy/CBC)

"But these drive-thrus are utilized by a lot of people, and it's a choice of the public to be utilizing them."

Breen said council can consider an outright ban on drive-thrus in the future if so desired.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador