Opel Leaves Squamish

By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: June 23, 2012

For the owners of Random, Opel was a tourist draw, a quirky addition that helped erase the blandness of Cleveland Ave.

For bylaw officers, it was a roadblock to the smooth functioning of the law.

Those two conflicting ideas collided in the summer of 2010.

Opel, the car that Random parked outside the store for two years, had to be removed, or else the owners, Gena Belanger and Alison Cross, would have to pay fine up to $500.

Belanger and Cross decided to take Opel off the property.

The unbending law embittered the owners, and yet, a feeble hope flickered in their mind.

Perhaps, they hoped, a time would come when the law would take off its mask and see Opel for what it was: a four-wheeled diversion, an oddity to break-up the monotony.

That hope was put to rest last month. Opel is leaving Squamish to be refurbished in Vancouver, Belanger said.

“It was an attraction that turned into a headache, a hassle,” Belanger said.

She said in enforcing the bylaw, the district didn’t consider the fact that Opel was being used to break the monotony of the Cleveland Ave.

Belanger said any hopes there might have been of Opel’s revival at the storefront were quashed.

Downtown merchants took a dim view of the car’s removal, and more than 200 signatures were collected on a petition to keep the Opel in 2010.

The effort fizzled out in the end, but not before it stirred a debate on how much the law should accommodate.

Belanger claims the car was parked within the limits of the property, and the sign was not a promotion.

The bylaw officer, of course, had a different view.

And she didn’t take a rosy view of the Billie’s Bouqet attempt to spruce things up by strewing rose petals on the entrance.

Downtown Squamish Business Improvement Association (DSBIA) president Scott McQuade said the district has to have fair policies for everyone.

Taste, however, is a hard thing to regulate, he added.

“It would be good if we could find ways to accommodate business that want to add unique flair to their property,” he said.

Belanger said Opel is missed by the community.

“We have guys who walk in and wonder where the car is,” she said.

Random, she said, is hoping to fill the void left by Opel with something else.

“Certainly something to lighten up, something out of the ordinary,” she said.