Surrey council OKs 26-storey tower downtown, without public hearing
Published 10:30 pm Monday, June 15, 2026
Surrey council approved an application at third reading, with no public hearing beforehand, to build a 26-storey mixed-use tower downtown instead of a 46-storey tower that had received council’s approval in 2023.
The proposed reduction in height comes “in response to current market conditions,” Surrey’s manager of planning and development Ron Gill explained in a planning report before council on June 15.
“As result, the number of residential units has decreased from 516 (422 strata and 94 rental units) to 337 (243 strata, but still 94 rental units),” Gill noted. “The ground floor commercial space remains and has increased from 343 to 673 square metres.”
The latest proposal, for the northeast corner of 113A Street and 102A Avenue, includes 312 parking spaces – that’s 236 for the 243 strata condos, and 40 f0r the 94 dwellings for rent.
Gill noted that a public hearing isn’t required because the proposal meets the requirements of Surrey’s Official Community Plan and has a residential component “accounting for at least half of the gross floor area of all buildings and other structures, in accordance with Section 464 of the Local Government Act.”
The new application, which council approved on June 15 with no debate, includes an eight-storey podium to contain ground-floor commercial space. The subject site currently has public pay-parking, City-owned land, a privately owned vacant lot and a duplex.
Meantime, Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke noted during a presser on April 23 that Surrey isn’t immune to economic challenges currently encompassing the globe, that towers are “a challenge right now” and developers are working on “very strict margins.”