A developer is hoping to rezone a portion of a Fleetwood manufactured home park to allow for 426 apartment units in addition to an already approved 137 townhouse units.
The proposed development is on the site of the current manufactured home park, Green Tree Estates.
During Monday’s (Feb. 11) regular council meeting, Surrey city council approved a bylaw introduction and set a date for public hearings for an OCP amendment and rezoning a portion of the property. The public hearings are set for Feb. 25.
In the Feb. 11 agenda, the developer, is proposing an amendment in the Official Community Plan (OCP) to “Multiple Residential” from “Urban” and an amendment to the Fleetwood Town Centre Plan (TCP) to allow for a new land-use designation to allow for apartments.
The developer, according to the report, is looking to build one five-storey and four six-storey apartment buildings on the northern portion of the site which is about 3.98 hectares.
The plans include two floors of underground parking on the northern portion of the site. The units, according to the report, will range in size from 594-sq.ft. to 1,285-sq.-ft. and would include 53 one-bedroom, 143 one-bedroom and flex, 69 two bedroom, 80 two-bedroom and flex and 81 three-bedroom apartments.
The developer, according to the report, is also proposing “housing agreement” to allocate 43 units as rental, and plan to “restrict the dwelling units to rental for a period of 20 years.”
In the report, it’s highlighted that the proposed phase two development “would be located within roughly 415 metres (0.25 mile) of a potential future SkyTrain station located at the intersection of 160 Street and Fraser Highway.”
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However, Councillor Steven Pettigrew raised concerns about overcrowding at local schools, adding that Walnut Road Elementary is already over capacity.
The projected number of students living in the apartments is 42; 21 students at Walnut Road Elementary and 21 students at Fleetwood Park Secondary.
“Because of the school crowding situation and the inability for the schools to absorb more, I’d like to recommend to council that this application be referred back to staff, so that the completion of this project matches up with the opening of schools in this area… and not stress out the existing system,” Pettigrew said.
But councillors Laurie Guerra, Jack Hundial and Linda Annis each said they were in favour of the project.
Hundial said that while this proposal is “very well laid out,” the pressure is on for council as it tries to balance “smart development” against existing school facilities.
“That’s just one of the many infrastructure or secondary infrastructure, or I guess, situations where we have a shortage of schools, but yet we’re trying to build up capacity to support this new mode of transportation throughout Surrey,” Hundial said.
In May of 2018, Surrey city council unanimously gave third reading to Dawson + Sawyer’s application to build 137 townhouses on the southern portion of the manufactured home park at 15820 Fraser Hwy. Now the developer is looking to rezone the northern portion.
RELATED: Dozens of Surrey seniors relocating after city OKs manufactured home park redevelopment, May 17, 2018
At the time of the southern part of the property being rezoned, the Surrey-based developer Dawson + Sawyer said the northern portion would remain zoned for manufactured homes “until such a time redevelopment is proposed.”
It was in August of 2017 that the developer first applied for the 137 townhouse units.
In order to redevelop the site, according to the report, the develop “must comply with provincial regulations,” including the province’s Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act.
For the developer to rezone the property, it must have “all necessary permits and approvals” before providing notice to the manufactured home owners to end a tenancy agreement, reads the report. Once notice is given, “the tenancy ends no earlier than 12 months after the date of notice is received.”
The report states that the developer “notified all residents” about the proposed apartment development before it submitted the development application. The developer, according to the report, said they are not “relying on the current rezoning application to terminate any tenancy agreement since agreements with each of the residents are already in place.”
The report says the applicant “anticipates” 95 per cent of current residents “will be successfully relocated by March 2019 and the subject property will be entirely vacant by the end of 2019.”
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