Land Use in South Delta

I am seeing a lack of consistency when it comes to the policy of the Tri-Delta party. I am not sure if this is good, bad or just indicative of change.

I attended an Against Port Expansion (APE) rally in February of this year and recall how Lois Jackson exclaimed that there will not be one more acre coming out of the ALR. She did this while she was shaking her fist in the air and rhetorically asking attending Richmond councilor Harold Steves (an early ALR advocate and long time Richmond politician) how long they have been fighting to keep lands in the ALR.

It seems apparent now that our Mayor was in conversations with Municipal staff and with Shato Holdings regarding the Tsawwassen Golf Club re-development proposal and its attendant ALR exclusion, even while she was uttering her forceful commentary.

The speed at which the Shato proposal has cleared municipal hurdles is record breaking in Delta, particularly South Delta. This is the largest, most complicated land use proposal before the South Delta community in almost two decades. Yet, compared to any other development proposal that might be a fraction its size, it is being treated with kid gloves. Maybe that’s a good thing.

Processing time for a typical residential development that does not deal with ALR considerations is generally advertised to be in the 10-month range. Certainly, land use applications in the ALR, even for farmers within the constraints of the ALR, often take years. There is a recent development in Tsawwassen that went through three iterations as a town home proposal and two as a condominium development before finally being approved two years later.

The Shato development proposal went from an announcement of the purchase of the land in January 2007 to First & Second Council reading in four months. What’s up with that? Has Tri-Delta loosened its anti-development policy or is there something else at play here?

You begin to wonder when long time card carrying Tri-Deltans start jumping ship. There are several well-known supporters that have expressed their displeasure with recent moves with this development.

The Municipality and several special interest groups spend a great deal of time lamenting over ALR lands in the TFN deal yet the Shato proposal that does not meet either current OCP or GVRD guidelines seems to be moving ahead quite nicely and at record breaking pace.

The minutes from the June 8 GVRD Land Use and Transportation Committee state, “Concern was expressed with the process Delta has taken�. Has this “concern� been dealt with since?

It would seem that long term “allies� Harold Steves, who is on the GVRD land use committee and our Mayor are not seeing eye to eye on this one. The once solid Tri-Delta alliance appears to have a few cracks in it.

Why is this and is it good, bad or does it matter?