A proposal for two four-storey mixed-use buildings and one four-storey apartment building got the green light at Surrey council Monday (Dec. 2).
The proposal was up for public hearing, before being given third reading in the 8-1 vote. Councillor Steven Pettigrew voted against the proposal.
No one got up to speak during the public hearing portion.
The development would be located at 5903 144th St., in the Sullivan neighbourhood.
Pettigrew said this application would have been an “excellent” opportunity to implement a “green-roof strategy.”
“A green roof can provide almost one-third of the benefits of a treed canopy, so if we are going to be clear-cutting parts of the city and killing hundreds of trees at a time, then we should at least try to offset this with taking a look at the green-roof strategy,” Pettigrew said.
He did applaud the proposal for its “abundance” of bicycle spaces and for “exceeding the indoor and outdoor amenity spaces.”
Despite that, Pettigrew said he was voting against the application “because of the tremendous tree loss,” adding that he would have supported it if it included some sort of green roofing.
The apartment building would include 115 units, plus 14,628-sq.-ft. of ground-floor commercial space. It would also include a 4,790-sq.-ft daycare facility.
For the proposed dwelling units, they would range from 474-sq.-ft. to 1,098-sq.-ft. It would include 46 one-bedroom units, nine one-bedroom plus den units, 46 two-bedroom units, 12 two-bedroom plus den units and two three-bedroom units.
For the proposal, 174 trees would be removed from the site. The staff report states that 117 trees, excluding boulevard trees, would be planted in replacement.
The development would provide an underground parking garage, with 190 residential spaces (167 spots for residents, and 23 for visitors) and 74 commercial parking spaces. It would also include 158 spots for bikes.
The applicant is proposing a Neighbourhood Concept Plan (NCP) amendment for changes to the local road network and to rezone the site to Comprehensive Development from One-Acre Residential Zone.
The proposal, according to the report, is consistent with the intent of the South Newton NCP, “which envisioned five mixed-use (residential/commercial) nodes to serve pockets of this neighbourhood with local services and a variety of housing options.”
The proposal also includes the construction of two new roads: 143 Street and 59 Avenue.
The report states that pre-notification letters were sent out on Aug. 18, 2019 and development proposal signs were installed on March 13, 2019.
Staff received one response from an area resident, stating the density shouldn’t be supported since it would result in a low-quality development which wouldn’t fit the character of the neighbourhood and that raised concerns about the impacts on school capacity.
The report states the projected number of students from this proposal would be six students at Goldstone Elementary School and six students at Sullivan Heights Secondary School.
A 700-seat addition is currently underway at Sullivan Height, which would bring its capacity to 1,700. The school was built to accommodate 1,000 students and as of Sept. 30, 2018, there were 1,534 students enrolled at the high school.
The expansion is set to open in September 2021.
READ ALSO: How teens grapple with growth at Surrey’s most crowded high school, June 11, 2019
The development would be ready for occupancy by July 2022.
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