Surrey city council is contemplating a developer’s application to have land in Fleetwood that is currently designated General Agricultural Zone rezoned to Single Family Residential Zone.
A public hearing is set for Monday evening concerning an application to have almost two and a half acres in Fleetwood at 7655 155th St. rezoned from General Agriculture Zone to Single Family Residential Zone to be able to subdivide the site into 10 single-family lots.
Kevin Dhesa, the owner and developer of the land, said Saturday that “every single” property in that area has already been rezoned from an agriculture zone. “This is the last infill site, the whole area has been developed,” he said. “There is one property left on the block.”
“Houses will be built eventually but the property right now is not at that stage,” he said. “I’m going t0 service the land, I’m going to put in the road, we’re going to put the put the park in. The application that’s going to council is not for building houses, that’s a whole separate approval process that will go through the building department once the property is actually serviced and rezoned.”
The applicant has volunteered to give the city roughly 30 per cent – just under an acre (0.74) – of the property for parkland, including a public walkway. This exceeds the five per cent required under the Local Government Act and 13 per cent of open space the Fleetwood Enclave Plan requires, according to a report by Jean Lamontagne, general manager of Surrey’s planning and development department.
Dhesa said he’s not trying to take land out of the Agricultural Land Reserve.
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Earlier in May council approved an unrelated application to rezone land from General Agriculture Zone to Business Park 3 Zone to subdivide a site at 6856 152nd Street and 15331-68th Avenue into three industrial lots and also accommodate a 8,361 square-metre building, despite considerable opposition voiced at a public hearing earlier that same night.
In that case, the application was carried with Councillors Steven Pettigrew, Linda Annis and Brenda Locke opposed.
“We’re losing 13 acres of farmland,” Pettigrew noted before voting. “On the edges of the ALR (Agricultural Land Reserve) we’re seeing little chunks of farmland, A-1 land, being taken out and I’m really, really concerned about this.
“We’re starting to see food shortages throughout the word and again it’s really important for us to preserve our agricultural land,” Pettigrew said. “We want to make sure we leave something behind for our children and our grandchildren.”
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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