White Rock is inching its way toward a revision of the Official Community Plan amendment, at the same time responding to the provincial government \u2013 as Mayor Megan Knight put it \u2013 giving the city \u201ca warning shot\u201d about missing its December deadline to approve the document.<\/p>\n
At Monday\u2019s (April 27) council meeting, staff \u2013 in the person of planning and development services director Wayne Berg \u2013 sought, and received, clarification from Coun. Anthony Manning on his suggested revisions of the previous draft OCP amendment (which a majority of council rejected on March 9).<\/p>\n
That enabled council to vote (in a 4-3 split, with Knight and councillors Elaine Cheung and Bill Lawrence opposed) to endorse a plan of action suggested by Berg in his corporate report (other outlined options were going back to the original OCP amendment, or simply doing nothing).<\/p>\n
In the chosen option, council authorizes staff to retain consultants Urban Systems to evaluate Manning\u2019s plan and report back with a proposed timeframe to incorporate the changes into the OCP.<\/p>\n
The consultants would also provide an analysis of whether the changes would meet the 20-year housing target of 8,800 new units for White Rock set by the provincial government and support preparation of \u2018graphic updates\u2019 necessary for revision of the draft OCP.<\/p>\n
The Manning plan, endorsed by councillors Christopher Trevelyan, David Chesney and Susan Bains, aims to refocus future height and density of development away from the lower hillside and into the town centre and along North Bluff Road (16 Avenue).<\/p>\n
All four councillors have been adamant in their opposition to an OCP that includes a North Bluff Corridor extending down the hillside as far as Thrift Avenue.<\/p>\n
Features of the Manning plan clarified at the meeting include a base height for the town centre of 16 storeys, and buildings of between four and six storeys along North Bluff Road between High Street and Nichol Road and Kent Street and Stayte Road.<\/p>\n
In those areas there would also be an overall blanket potential increase of 20 per cent in height as \u201cdensity bonusing\u201d for affordable housing, Manning stated. <\/p>\n
Peace Arch Hospital Foundation lands and Fraser Health-owned land around the hospital on North Bluff would allow 15 institutional storeys \u2013 the equivalent of 20 to 22 storeys \u2013 but restricted to hospital use, not residential.<\/p>\n
Public engagement on the revised property use would consist of the public hearing on the revised plan, Manning confirmed.<\/p>\n
Floor-area ratio and density calculations would remain the same as in the earlier draft, Manning agreed.<\/p>\n
As Berg pointed out in his report, having the consultants vet Manning\u2019s plan would provide \u201cadditional technical validation regarding compliance with provincial housing targets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trevelyan said that based on his reading of the most recent OCP draft, it was never explicitly stated how many units the plan would provide, only that it would fulfil provincial requirements.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to look at this one to see if it\u2019s close, or matches, or even potentially exceeds that number,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s very important, in good faith, to report to the province that this could actually increase housing in White Rock. It\u2019s spreading out quite a bit longer along North Bluff,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very germane to point out that this is not a councillor saying, \u2018Let\u2019s hack everything down to three storeys and call it a day.\u2019 There\u2019s a big difference. This is local government responding to feedback we have received. It\u2019s not about defying the province in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an April 20 letter to the city, assistant deputy housing minister Jessica Brooks asked for a response within two weeks of receipt \u201cwith White Rock\u2019s next steps and timeline for achieving compliance with the legislative requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n
The four-councillor majority authorized a letter laying out what the city was doing, but also including (as proposed by Manning and Trevelyan) a summary of previous discussion points about the proposed revision as a rationale for the additional work.<\/p>\n
These include that it is intended to better align with the Metro 2050 Urban Centre plan and Surrey\u2019s Semiahmoo Town Centre proposal, that it would provide east-west access along a four-lane road rather than moving it down to a two-lane road,while noting that the proposed TransLink bus rapid transit plan, which had driven some of the thinking for the draft OCP amendment, is not currently funded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working for this (the province\u2019s request) \u2013 there shouldn\u2019t be any conflict,\u201d Bains observed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe letter from the province is in no way unexpected,\u201d Trevelyan said. \u201cOf course \u2013 they have given a directive, and we are ultimately creatures of the province. But we also have responsibilities to our residents to make the best policies we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knight voiced concern that the Manning plan would not receive adequate public input.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not doing any public consultation on these new lands that have been added\u2026You\u2019re changing all along North Bluff and not doing anything (about consultation) \u2013 we\u2019re just doing the regular public hearing (on the revised OCP amendment),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She also summarized opposition to moving ahead with the Manning plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s potential intervention by the province. We keep dragging this out and making it longer and longer. My hope is they don\u2019t throw somebody into our planning department, but they could do that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as everybody\u2019s ready to take that gamble \u2013 I\u2019m not, but the four of you are \u2013 so, we\u2019re going that route.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"White Rock is inching its way toward a revision of the Official Community Plan amendment, at the same…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-637729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}