A group of Tsawwassen residents are making their opposition to a proposed housing development on 12 Avenue loud and clear to city council.
Letters and a petition have been submitted regarding a development that would see the consolidation of three single-family lots into 10 in the 5100-block of 12 Avenue, next Cliff Drive Elementary and Brandrith Park.
The rezoning application by Sync Properties Ltd., which has yet to come to council for consideration, would see 10 smaller detached single-family homes with secondary suites constructed at each new lot.
Increased density and traffic in the area are among the issues raised by those opposed.
Lot consolidations can be seen elsewhere in the city, most notably along 72 Avenue in North Delta where several townhouse developments have already been constructed.
Other applications in the City of Delta to subdivide or consolidated lots include a proposal for a three-unit townhomes development at a property at 4780 48B St. in Ladner Village. That lot would be split into three.
The planning department notes the property is designated to allow three-storey residential buildings, but concerns raised by the public include the massing of the proposed building, loss of privacy, lack of compatibility with the Ladner Village historical context, parking challenges and increases to traffic.
Examples of rezoning proposals to increase density for single lots, which still require final council approval, include a rezoning proposal for a single-detached family lot in the 700-block of Brooke Road to allow a residential duplex.
Elsewhere, in North Delta, council recently approved a proposal to allow a subdivision of a property in the 8700-block 112 Street into three single-detached lots so that three houses with coach houses can be built on each.
Council also approved a proposal to subdivide one property in the 11100-block of River Road into six, as well as one environmentally protected lot, in order to construct six new single-detached houses.
Another example of an approved application that’s frequently before council was a proposal to subdivide one lot in the 11000-block of 80 Avenue into two with a single-detached home to be built on each.
Previous changes to the city’s secondary suite policy now allows those houses to each have a secondary suite.
The city’s new Housing Action Plan, approved by council last year, could result in an uptick in applications.
The strategies yet to be implemented include pre-zoning to expedite the development approvals process, which would rezone multiple sites at once to conform to OCP land use designations.
Pre-zoning would, in some cases, also encourage development that is prioritized by the community or provided gentle density in lower-density neighbourhoods.
Gentle density would allow units like duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, coach homes, detached suites and townhouses in historically single-detached neighbourhoods.
