It's a rather unimpressive feature on what's already a nondescript street, but Delta council is hoping redevelopment of the Seven Seas property will kick-start a major revitalization of the Ladner waterfront.
A public hearing was held at municipal hall Tuesday to rezone the civicowned Seven Seas site and the adjacent Chisholm Street parcel formerly occupied by the Brackman-Ker warehouse. The move is aimed at enticing potential buyers for the parcels.
The new waterfront mixed-use zone would permit a wide range of uses, including retail, office and service commercial, eating and drinking establishments, moorage and marina, recreation and culture, as well as limited residential. Structure on the sites would be limited to a maximum height of two-and-a-half storeys.
Only a few people spoke at the hearing, all against the rezoning.
Local architect Brian Hart said the new mixeduse designation was flawed, suggesting developers should figure out the best balance of housing and commercial in order to make it viable.
He also suggested the building height limit wasn't reasonable, noting views are already blocked by anything above one storey.
Another resident asked that the site become public open space, while resident Kent Warmington wanted to know how the public would still have input on future development if the rezoning went ahead.
Noting the proposed zoning would bring the site in line with Official Community Plan guidelines, community planning director Marcy Sangret said a development permit process would still be required for any building scheme, a process that could involve a public hearing if council chose to have one.
Down to only four members for the evening, councillors on Tuesday decided to postpone a vote until the rest of their colleagues were available, agreeing the project had enough significance.
It's been a long road just to get to this point as Delta tries to revitalize the waterfront. It started several years ago with the municipality obtaining a licence from Port Metro Vancouver for the water lots followed by a harbour clean up that removed sunken boats and other debris.
In 2009, the Downtown Ladner Waterfront Redevelopment Advisory Committee was formed with a mandate of devising a strategy to make Ladner Harbour and Chisholm Street attractive destinations. It met numerous times to come up with a vision.
Out of that process came a deal with a private developer to build a marketplace on the civic properties, but that fell through over a year ago. Council then decided to put the sites up for sale.
Last year, council approved new incentives, design guidelines and building heights aimed at attracting investment for privately-owned properties in the area.
