The City of Surrey will get a chance to sell the City of New Westminster on its plans for an industrial site in Newton.
Surrey has submitted a request to Metro Vancouver to amend the Regional Growth Strategy to change the regional land designation for 1.3 hectares of land at 7880 128 St. from industrial to employment. Metro Vancouver has referred the application – a Type 3 amendment – to New Westminster for comment.
In a report to council, city staff recommended New Westminster advise Metro Vancouver that it does not support Surrey’s application to change the property’s regional land use designation from industrial to employment. The report said the proposed amendment would facilitate the development of two five-storey “mixed-employment” commercial buildings (retail on the first and second floors and offices on floors three through five) and a two-storey child-care building.
In a report to council, staff recommended New Westminster not support the proposed amendment, saying it would be inconsistent with Metro Vancouver’s policies related to protecting existing industrial lands by removing a relatively large parcel with railway access from industrial use. Staff said it would further expand non-industrial uses meant to be contained in the commercial district, potentially creating pressure to remove the other surrounding industrial parcels.
“The materials from City of Surrey also note the proposal would increase greenhouse gas emissions through increased motor vehicle trips,” said the staff report.
Some members of New West council, however, are not convinced the city should oppose Surrey’s application.
Mayor Patrick Johnstone, a member of Metro Vancouver’s regional planning committee, said all Type 3 amendment applications to the regional district get sent out to municipalities for consultation. He said the committee doesn’t typically get a lot of responses back, with two or three municipalities usually responding to any particular amendment.
“My view of this amendment is that it's relatively minor,” he said. “It is a change of land use in an industrial area to a different type of commercial use within the urban containment boundary.”
Johnstone said this particular application has some benefits for both Surrey and the region.
“I do think that there's a time for us to push back at Type 3 amendments that come from Metro Vancouver, when we think that they are significant amendments that have a significant impact on regional strategies and regional plans,” he said. “And for me, personally, this one doesn't sort of get over that bar. So, I don't necessarily feel the need for us to push back aggressively at Surrey on this one.”
Coun. Tasha Henderson said she does not have a strong position on what seems to be a fairly small amendment, as the site would still be used for commercial business purposes. She is pleased to see a childcare included in the proposal, noting that research has shown that many people want to have childcare services near their workplaces.
“It's really great to see childcare spaces come into these kinds of developments,” she said. “I'm supportive of that. … We just don't see a lot of childcare in these kinds of industrial spaces.”
More info needed
Coun. Daniel Fontaine said he doesn’t have a strong opinion on this application, but he is generally concerned about the loss of industrial land.
“I just worry that we've lost so much industrial property in Metro Vancouver over the years,” he said.
Fontaine questioned if there is an opportunity to get a representative from Metro Vancouver to attend the next council meeting to answer questions about the application.
“It's not a hill I'm going to die on,” he said. “But I just think if we have the ability to defer this or refer it to the Oct. 7 meeting and invite a representative from Metro Van, I think it's a good practice to have them here to defend these types of recommendations and perhaps answer questions from council.”
Johnstone said Metro Vancouver’s planning committee has not supported or not supported the application, which is currently out for consultation. He suggested questions about the project would be better answered by someone from the City of Surrey.
Jackie Teed, the city’s director of planning and development, said the City of New Westminster must provide its feedback to Metro Vancouver by Oct. 11, so it could meet that deadline if the matter was considered at the Oct. 7 meeting.
Council approved a motion to have staff request that Surrey attend or provide information to New West council about the application at its next meeting.
“I think just bring them in and let's have a chat with them,” Fontaine said. “Like I said, I'm not like fussed either way, but I tend to typically lean more towards not switching this out of industrial, but I'd like to be able to do it in the context of hearing from the proponent.”
Coun. Jaimie McEvoy supported the request to get more information from Surrey. He said the preservation of industrial land is important and noted there's “huge pressures” on industrial land.
“We have an employment strategy in New West that looks at preserving some of our industrial land; industrial land provides a good base of jobs. Those jobs need to be distributed throughout the region for transportation and climate reasons,” he said. “I'm hesitant to tell another community what to do, but with the vote before me, I wouldn't vote to give up industrial lands.”
