The proposed redevelopment of a boarded-up former gas station and a fast food outlet in Aldergrove won a thumbs-up from the hotel located next to the one-acre site on the southeast corner of 264 Street and Fraser Highway during a Monday night public hearing.
Best Western Hotel manager Ven Srinivansan told Langley Township council that he “strongly supports” the replacement of the graffiti-covered buildings with four one-storey commercial buildings.
Hotel property manager Barry Reavis also spoke in support of the proposal that would rezone the site to permit a change from a gas station to a mix of other businesses.
There was a single objection to the proposal, filed in writing, by one person who worried the proposal would take business away from the downtown core of Aldergrove.
The new commercial buildings would cover 1,113 square metres, fronting Fraser Highway and 264 Street with 53 parking spaces in the back.
A staff report to council described their design as “one of contemporary west coast character, clad in heavy timber cedar, tongue and groove siding, stucco siding, laminated frosted glass canopies and cast in place sand blasted concrete.”
Completion of the public hearing moves the project a step closer to a final vote on approval at an upcoming council meeting.
Most members of council are on record as supporting the project, with several talking about the need to do something about the run-down site at the April meeting that granted preliminary approval to the rezoning.
During that discussion, Councillor Kim Richter called the corner lot “unsightly” while Councillors Charlie Fox and Bob Long both said it was an “eyesore.”
“It’s good they are going to clean up that corner,” Fox said.
“It’s been left in a derelict state for a while now.”
According to Township records, both the gas station and the fast food outlet closed shortly after a redevelopment permit was applied for in September of 2001.
They have been vacant ever since.
