The Queen’s Park Meat Market, a cannabis manufacturing facility and the 2021 budget are among the items up for discussion at council meetings on Feb. 22.
At a special regular meeting of council, staff will present the city’s 2021 to 2025 financial plan. The meeting, taking place at 5 p.m., includes an opportunity to be heard, after which council will consider adoption of the five-year financial plan.
The city’s 2021 budget incorporates a property tax increase of 4.9% and a $183.3-million capital budget. (You can read more in a previous Record story.)
The regular meeting will be followed by a public hearing at 6 p.m., which features three items.
First up is zoning amendment bylaw 8154, which deals with secondary suite requirements. This bylaw is intended to streamline the city's secondary suite program, with a goal of simplifying regulations, speeding up the application process and reducing staff resources needed to review applications.
“Alongside the recent changes to secondary suite requirements in the B.C. Building Code in 2019, the updated New Westminster secondary suites program would continue to focus on regulating life safety and key livability, while allowing for more flexibility on design-related requirements for suites,” said a report to council.
The report states the proposed revision to the secondary suite program would: remove requirements in the zoning bylaw that are already regulated by the B.C. Building Code in order to reduce redundancy; relocate life safety and key livability standards (now located in the design standards and guidelines) into the body of the zoning bylaw; and refresh and relocate non-key design guidelines currently located in the design standards and guidelines into a new secondary suite guide.
Details about all of the proposed changes are outlined in a Jan. 18 report to council.
Delayed items
Monday’s public hearing also includes two items that were supposed to be considered in January but had to be rescheduled because of an error in the public notification process.
*A zoning text amendment for a proposed cannabis-infused products manufacturing facility at 1135 Tanaka Ct. in Queensborough.
Leaf Infusions wants to open a manufacturing facility, where it would make cannabis-infused products, such as gummies and tinctures, for licensed producers, the BC Liquor Distribution Branch or licensed retailers in Canada. The 15,269-square-foot (1,419-square-metre) facility would be located in a vacant space beside Value Village at Gifford Street and Tanaka Court.
*A heritage revitalization agreement bylaw and a heritage designation bylaw for 404 Second St., which is the longtime location of the Queen’s Park Meat Market.
The plan would allow the applicant to add additional floor space to the existing one-storey 1926 building through a 31-square-metre (332-square-feet) side addition, an 18-square-metre (191-square-feet) rear addition and a basement. The project also requires zoning bylaw relaxations related to land use, density, site coverage, setbacks, parking space configuration and signage. In exchange for the zoning and sign bylaw relaxations, the building would be restored, legally protected through a heritage designation agreement and listed on the city’s heritage register. The application is also intended to “regularize and expand the non-conforming commercial use” of the building in what’s primarily a single-family residential neighbourhood.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all council meetings are being held virtually. Details about watching meetings or appearing as delegations can be found at www.newwestcity.ca – follow the City Hall and Council meetings tabs.
Follow Theresa McManus on Twitter @TheresaMcManus
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