One more land use contract is off the books.
Delta council on Oct. 25, approved a land use contract discharge for a home at 11846 Alderwood Cres. in order to allow the property owner to construct a secondary suite within the existing single-detached house.
The secondary suite meets current zoning bylaw regulations and council was told the proposed parking arrangement also satisfies zoning requirements.
The house still has a land use contract on title, which does not permit secondary suites.
Rather than amend the land use contract, planning staff recommended that it be discharged to make the home fall under the underlying single-detached residential zone.
Council also approved a staff recommendation regarding a land use contract for another property, but that application was only for an amendment and not a discharge.
That application for a house at 159 Centennial Parkway in the Boundary Bay neighbourhood sought to allow the construction of a third storey addition to the existing dwelling built in 1967.
The owners were proposing an amendment to the existing land use contract in order to increase the maximum permitted height from 25 feet to 28 feet, increase the maximum number of storeys allowed from two-and-a half storeys to three-storeys and to permit a rear eave projection.
Council was told that although most of the homes in the area are considered two-and-a-half
storeys, the proposed height for the Centennial Parkway house is in context with the surrounding neighbourhood and would not be significantly higher.
The owners have also designed the dwelling in such a way that it does not exceed any of the rooflines, according to planning staff, adding there are also homes that may not be considered three storeys but appear to be taller.
There’s also a three-storey home in the immediate vicinity.
A staff report notes while Delta is taking the opportunity to discharge land use contracts whenever possible, the Centennial Parkway home owners requested an amendment as a discharge for their renovation proposal would require multiple variances, triggering a rezoning process.
Mostly created in the 1970s, land use contracts were signed at the time of a property's original subdivision and outline various development guidelines.
Delta no longer uses such contracts, but there’s still thousands of legally binding agreements registered on titles and remain frozen in time.
Over the years Delta updated its zoning bylaws, but the old land use contracts supersede them, regardless of whether the contracts conform to current standards.
Those contracts vary with some more restrictive than current zonings and others less restrictive.
Delta council has taken advantage of provisions under the Local Government Act that allows cities to expire all old contracts by 2024.
