The City of Delta has received an application to develop a Scott Road property that was the site of a proposed 35-storey highrise rejected by council in December.
At Monday’s regular council meeting, city staff brought forward a report outlining the proposed multi-unit development at the corner of Scott Road and 75A Avenue, which would see 142 units split between two six-storey apartment buildings and 11 three-storey townhouses.
The proposed development would be a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom residential units, including 26 adaptable units, and include an amenity building, outdoor amenity spaces and two levels of underground parking.
The proposal aligns with the location’s current medium density residential designation and does not require amending the official community plan, and there developer is not seeking any variances at this time.
The report notes the application is at a preliminary stage and aspects of the proposal may change in response to detailed staff review as well as comments from council and the community.
“We just received this application and we’re letting council know that it’s in the door. We’re going to be starting our community engagement as outlined in the report, so this is not necessarily the final product,” director of community planning and development Marcy Sangret told council on Monday. “It certainly is very early in the process.”
City staff will be placing public notice signs outside the property and sending a notification letter to the surrounding property owners to advise them of the proposed development. As part of the consultation process, the city will seek input from external agencies including the Delta school board, the City of Surrey, TransLink and Fraser Health, create a project page on delta.ca, and host a virtual public engagement session “to introduce the proposed development to the community.”
Should the application proceed past second reading, a public hearing will be held on the necessary rezoning and road closure bylaws.
Several members of council took the opportunity Monday to voice concerns over the current design of the project.
“I could not support a building that looked like that in our community, in North Delta,” Coun. Lois Jackson said. “If we can’t get some better architecture going on here, I’m not supporting anything.”
Coun. Dan Copeland said he supports the project moving forward, but had concerns about the project “interfacing with an established neighbourhood.”
“Trying to somewhat fit in into the neighbourhood would be a nice feature of this back side of the development where we look along 119A [Street],” he said. Mayor George Harvie expressed his agreement with Copeland’s comments.
Coun. Jeannie Kanakos also voiced concerns about the design, saying she will “leave it in the hands of the staff and architect to find ways to soften what looks like a block right now.”
The application is being made by Arzone Real Estate Investments Ltd. and Hari Homes Inc., the same group that proposed the rejected highrise project. That development would have brought 335 units to the mainly residential neighbourhood, including 70 that would have been available to first-time homebuyers under Housing BC’s Affordable Home Ownership Program.
That proposal was met with stiff, often heated resistance from many in the community — and on council — who argued the project was out of scale with the surrounding neighbourhood, would add too much traffic to along the already congested Scott Road and increase rat-running on the surrounding side streets.
READ MORE: Council denies 35-storey North Delta highrise proposal (Dec. 2, 2019)
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