With a municipal election looming, Delta council this week set into motion the process to consider one of the longest standing issues in the community - whether to allow development on the Southlands.
On Monday night, civic politi-cians officially received Century Group's application to amend the Official Community Plan (OCP) and approved a lengthy public consultation process.
The process will start early in 2012 with a series of public information meetings before council considers preliminary approval of the application. If given that approval, the application would then be subject to its first public hearing.
Century Group president Sean Hodgins welcomed council's decision.
"This is the long-awaited logical next step in the process of collaborative community planning," he said. "We've worked with the citizens of Tsawwassen for five years to come up with a plan that produces multiple community benefits, including activating community-based farming while providing local housing diversity. Now council will officially consider that plan, seek stakeholder input and listen to the community."
The application to amend the OCP seeks a comprehensive development for the Southlands that would include agricultural uses, natural habitat, public open space and greenways on 80 per cent of the land - about 429 acres - and residential, commercial, park and institutional uses on the remaining 20 per cent.
Ownership of the 80 per cent would be transferred to the Corporation of Delta. Construction on the remaining 20 per cent would include 950 housing units.
The application also requires approval from the Metro Vancouver board since it would amend the Regional Growth Strategy. That process would also likely involve a public hearing.
"The Southlands plan is a regionally significant model for agricultural urbanism, demonstrating how we can best plan at the urban edge to sustain local agriculture," Hodgins said. "I look forward to Delta advancing our proposal to Metro at some point in the future so that this opportunity can be considered."
If the OCP amendment is approved, Century Group would then have to make an application to rezone the property, which would also be subject to the public hearing process.
Councillors Bruce McDonald and Robert Campbell both said Monday night they are happy to see a specific proposal come forward for the property.
"I think it's appropriate and reasonable for the citizens of South Delta to have an opportunity to look at a really specific proposal for that land rather than just deal with hypotheticals," said McDonald. "I'm pleased to see that we're going into the consultation process."
