North Delta residents will get their first in-person look at an 800-plus-home highrise development pitched for a Scott Road shopping centre during four public information sessions later this month.
The proposed redevelopment of the 2.4-hectare Delta Shoppers Mall (8037 to 8087 120th St., located between the Real Canadian Superstore and Delta Rise) includes four buildings ranging in height from six to 32 storeys, with a total of 876 residential units, 10,572 square metres of office space, 7,178 square metres of commercial space, and childcare spaces for a total of 60 children.
Of the 876 residential units, 643 are slated to be market condo units located in two 32-storey highrises. A 10-storey building would include 150 senior housing units, while a six-storey building would include 66 market and 17 non-market purpose-built rental housing units.
The project has been designed to form a central plaza with public spaces between the podiums of the towers, 2,147 square metres of indoor and 7,358 square metres of outdoor common amenity space in several locations and a total of 1,577 parking stalls in an underground parkade.
The proposal is consistent with the site’s current designation under Delta’s Official Community Plan (OCP) and the North Delta Area Plan, which permits a maximum height of 32 storeys, but the site would need to be rezoned from Core Commercial to Comprehensive Development Zone to allow for the residential units, and a Scott Road Corridor Development Permit is needed to address the form and character of the development.
READ MORE: Application received for multi-tower redevelopment of North Delta mall
Residents can learn more about the project, as well as give the city and developer their feedback, during two pairs of public information meetings announced on Tuesday (Aug. 1).
Two meetings will be held at the North Delta Recreation Centre (11415 84th Ave.) on Tuesday, Aug. 15; the first from 10 a.m. to noon, and the second from 5 to 7 p.m.
Another two meetings are planned for Tuesday, Aug. 22; one from 1 to 3 p.m., the other from 6 to 8 p.m.
The public can also look over the proposal and leave comments on the city’s project website (letstalk.delta.ca/lu009522).
Since it aligns with the OCP, the rezoning application does not automatically require a public hearing under bylaw changes adopted by council on Dec. 12, 2022, though council can still elect to have a hearing when it comes up for approval. The project is the first to make its way through the approval process under the new rules.
Council got its first look at the proposed development during a committee of the whole meeting back in November. The plan was generally well received by councillors, with Mayor George Harvie calling it the “first time I’ve seen in many years something that’s ticked a lot of boxes,” but has since garnered sharp criticism from area residents due to its height, density and presumed impacts on local traffic and schools.
More than 250 residents in the 37-storey Delta Rise — located next door to the proposed development site — have signed a petition opposing the project, citing among other issues the impact additional traffic on already-congested Sharma Boulevard will have on “free access” to their homes.
Many other residents have written to mayor and council or spoken during question period before meetings of council, arguing that a project this big ought to be given a public hearing regardless of what the bylaw requires due to how it will affect livability in the community. Further, many have demanded that all homes in the community be notified of the proposal, rather than just those in the immediate area.
Opponents also point to the project being out of scale with the recommendations of the Mayor’s Housing Task Force for Scott Road, which was established in early 2020 — following the defeat of a hotly-contested 35-storey highrise development proposed for the corner of 75A Avenue and Scott Road — to address housing and development challenges and create greater certainty about future development along the Scott Road corridor, according to the report’s introduction.
The task force, which included 14 North Delta residents as well as Mayor Harvie and senior city staff, envisioned the area around Scott Road and 80th Avenue (dubbed “City Plaza,” one of three neighbourhoods comprising the “Central District”) to be used for medium density mixed-use development promoting a lively shopping experience.
“Its high-quality urban environment with some midrise buildings [would help] contribute to a range of exciting new amenities, including a large urban plaza giving the feel of a small downtown,” the task force’s report states.
The task force envisioned City Plaza as a mix of townhouses and “stacked townhouses” up to four storeys, mixed-use and residential buildings up to six storeys, and mixed-use and residential towers up to 18 storeys.
READ MORE: Walkable mixed-use neighbourhoods focus of task force’s vision for Scott Road
To date, the task force’s recommendations have not yet been adopted by the city, the reason being that the bulk of them require changing the OCP for North Delta, a process that involves robust public consultation and a public hearing prior to council approval.
When the task force’s report was received by council in October of 2020, councillors voted that current and new development applications for the Scott Road corridor be allowed to advance and be reviewed for consistency with the task force’s recommendations pending the required bylaw amendments to formally implement them.
However, until they are enshrined in the city’s bylaws, the recommendations remain more of a guide rather than standards that must legally be followed.
A memorandum from city staff to council provided for the Nov. 22 committee of the whole meeting acknowledged the proposed development exceeds the maximum building height the task force recommended for the City Plaza neighbourhood, but noted it is consistent with other components of the report, such as creating a new urban space that invites active uses supported by shopping, and including diverse forms of housing by way of a range of unit sizes and mix of market, rental and seniors housing.
In May, Delta was named by B.C.’s Housing Ministry as one of the first 10 cities to be subject to new housing targets under legislation passed last year.
Ministry and city staff met in June for a broad-strokes discussion as to what the targets for Delta will be, and the city was given 30 days to respond before the province finalized those goals.
The province is expected to publicly release the specific targets for each of those 10 cities in the coming weeks, after which municipalities will have six months to show meaningful progress.
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editor@northdeltareporter.com
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