It looks like the Century Group's application for the Southlands won't be open for public input until the spring.
Last fall, company president Sean Hodgins formally submitted an application to amend the Official Community Plan for the 500-plus-acre property. It marked the latest chapter in the long, ongoing saga of the contentious site, which is zoned agricultural and designated as such in the OCP and Tsawwassen Area Plan, but is not in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
If the OCP amendment were eventually approved, a rezoning and development application would follow.
When the OCP application was submitted, a lengthy process was outlined that included sending the proposal to various committees, civic departments and external agencies, including Metro Vancouver. A series of public information meetings were to then take place before a report is sent to Delta council recommending whether or not to send the application to a public hearing phase. Even if it gets the OK in Delta, approval is also required by Metro Vancouver.
Noting newly appointed advisory committees haven't had a chance to meet to go over the application, community planning director Tom Leathem said dates haven't been set as of yet for the public information meetings.
"There's a few things underway that we need to complete first before there's something meaningful to present to the public. We did circulate the application but the committees aren't really up and running yet, so we got to get the application in front of some of those critical committees, like the agricultural committee," said Leathem.
Metro Vancouver has also been sent the application for preliminary comments, he noted, saying an updated report will also be written for council.
"I'd like to get that report to council by early March at the latest. We'll have some initial feedback at that point. By then we'll have some dates picked out for the public information meetings."
Hodgins wants to build 950 housing units and hand over 80 per cent of the site to the municipality, most of it for urban agriculture. The application is a scaled-back version of a much larger development vision, which would have seen over 1,900 housing units. An earlier OCP application for the larger development plan was handed back to him without being considered because the municipality was about to embark on updating the Tsawwassen Area Plan.
Last year a public hearing was held on Delta council's proposal to apply to have the land placed back in the ALR, but that hearing ended after the community's deep division on the recommendation was apparent.
A closed-door summit at municipal hall was then held, where Hodgins was given the green light to come forward with a new development scheme.
According to the application, "The Southlands plans are a unique concept of urban settlement integrated with various scales of agricultural activity and other community benefits."
The application also states that if the farmland handed over to Delta is managed to its full potential, "Southlands can represent a form of farming of an earlier era in Delta, when farming was more connected to the community and part of the local culture."
The plan includes a market square that "will be an important link between the agricultural activities on the land and everyday life in Tsawwassen."
The group Southlands the Facts, however, claims that without a specific development plan, amending the OCP leaves the door open to the developer to build "thousands of homes."
