The public will now get a chance to have their say on a proposal for two, six-storey apartment buildings on Nicholson Road in North Delta.
Delta council gave first and second readings to an official community plan amendment bylaw and a zoning amendment bylaw at its Dec. 17th council meeting paving the way for a public hearing sometime in early 2019.
During council discussion on the proposal, Coun. Lois Jackson suggested a larger portion of residents in the surrounding area be notified of the proposal and upcoming public hearing.
Jackson also took some issue with the look of the façade of the development.
“I appreciate people have different ideas of what things should look like, but this box-type construction that I see coming all over the Lower Mainland, I find to be quite cold as far as a community look is concerned,” she said. “I would hope the developers would have a look at that. With all due respect to the architects, there are not that many redeeming qualities in my opinion.”
The rezoning application is for a property at 6950 Nicholson Rd., located next to the vacant North Delta Inn site, which has seen previous high-rise applications fail.
The application proposes two apartment buildings that would be six storeys in height and comprise 181 units. The development would include 237 residential parking spaces and 27 visitor parking spaces located in an underground structure, and vehicular access to the site would be from Nicholson Road.
The site was the subject of a previous contentious development application that also included the North Delta Inn property.
During the election campaign, successful mayoralty candidate George Harvie talked about how Scott Road was a key to create more affordable housing.
The previous council approved changes to the North Delta Area Plan encouraging more high density.
The plan focuses on the concentration of growth strategically focused on four key areas: the Scott Road Corridor, the Nordel Social Heart, 84th Avenue and 72nd Avenue.
The Delta Rise high-rise further down Scott Road has since been constructed and two more high-rise applications have been submitted for the corridor, including a contentious proposal at the corner of Scott Road and 75A Avenue.
Meanwhile, the North Delta Inn site remains vacant with no application submitted to build anything there, while the vacant former gas station property fronting it, at the corner of Scott Road at 70th Avenue, is also vacant and up for sale.
- With files from Sandor Gyarmati
