Metro Vancouver staff are recommending the board of directors reject the Southlands development proposal.
The board is to meet Friday morning at Metro headquarters in Burnaby to vote on a proposal to amend the Regional Growth Strategy that would pave the way for the Century Group's plan.
According to a Metro staff report, the proposal has many positive features but represents a significant breach of the Urban Containment Boundary onto agricultural land.
The report also notes there is capacity within the existing urban footprint to accommodate all anticipated growth in Delta to 2040. "As a result, the proposal, despite its innovative design and benefits to the local community, does not support the regional goal of directing growth to existing centres and developed areas," the report states.
To change the property's designation, the application requires a two-thirds weighted vote by the Metro board of directors.
Century Group wants to build 950 housing units on 20 per cent of the 214-hectare (537-acre) Southlands. The remaining 80 per cent would be given to Delta, much of it for farming.
The board gave the proposal preliminary approval in March and a public hearing was held earlier this month. At the hearing, local farmers described a myriad of irrigation and drainage problems that make much of the site not viable for soil-based farming without extensive improvements, which Century has pledged to undertake.
Although a slight majority of speakers at the regional hearing spoke in favour of the plan, subsequent written submissions were largely opposed.
Delta made application to Metro Vancouver to amend the Regional Growth Strategy after local politicians gave conditional approval to the proposal last fall. That approval followed a five-day public hearing.
Delta is proposing to have the newly acquired farmland placed back in the Agricultural Land Reserve once improvements have been done.
Having a long history of controversy, the Southlands is zoned agricultural, but it's not in the ALR.
Delta CAO George Harvie told the Optimist that if second and third readings were granted, a report would be prepared for council recommending the municipality formally apply to have the designated farm areas included in the ALR.
