{"id":739898,"date":"2026-06-16T06:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T06:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/739898\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T06:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T06:15:08","slug":"surrey-council-oks-tower-mosque-project-for-whalley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/739898\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrey council OKs tower, mosque project for Whalley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surrey council OKs tower, mosque project for Whalley<\/p>\n

Published 10:10 pm Monday, June 15, 2026<\/p>\n

Surrey council has approved a proposal at third reading to build a 38-storey residential tower containing 373 dwellings and a 2,029-square-metre mosque in Whalley.<\/p>\n

Prior to the vote, a public hearing was set for June 15.<\/p>\n

The subject site is 13508-13546 98A Ave. Council approved the project without debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cStaff support the proposed development as it generally consistent with applicable planning policies and contributes to housing supply and places of worship,\u201d a planning report<\/a> indicates. The applicant is Masjid Al Noor \u201cMosque of Lights,\u201d J. Dharni and N. Dharni.<\/p>\n

On site today is a single-family residence being used as a mosque. The project requires 151 parking stalls for the new mosque and 332 for the residential part.<\/p>\n

The Surrey School District expects 31 school-age children will live there with 19 attending AHP Matthew Elementary, seven attending Queen Elizabeth Secondary and the remaining being home-schooled, attending private school or enrolling in another school district.<\/p>\n

Prior to the public hearing city hall received 737 pieces of correspondence in support, nine opposed and five expressing concerns. A few dozen speakers voiced their support for the project while some opposed the tower part, with one arguing it makes for \u201cless room for the pilgrims.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Muslim, I want to focus on the mosque,\u201d said another. Yet another speaker told council he is opposed to turning a \u201csacred space\u201d into a \u201ccommercial space,\u201d while supporters of the tower and mosque being side-by-side said this will cut down on driving and that worshippers living in the tower, particularly the elderly, would benefit from a short stroll to their place of worship as they pray five times a day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey council OKs tower, mosque project for Whalley Published 10:10 pm Monday, June 15, 2026 Surrey council has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-739898","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\/739898","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=739898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}