Quote:
Originally Posted by Spr0ckets
That's easy to say when you're not the one forking up the bucks to pay for it.
(And I don't mean "you" in particular, but more in the general sense).
It's a question the City has to answer whether it's willing to sacrifice ready and available (...and willing to move forward) developments with much needed housing, just because they lack the necessary office (or other zoning) component to fit their long-term vision,......
....or to find, or try to reach some compromise with the developers.
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Once a major site is residential - or so substantially residential that it makes no difference - it won't be available for commercial again for decades. Once Surrey City Centre has developed with residential buildings, especially on this scale, then it isn't a City Centre, it's another suburban residential dormitory for wherever the jobs are located.
There's a balance to be struck, but Surrey already allows residential development with the commercial space that's required, and are flexible about what the other space could be. This developement isn't even trying to meet those minimum requirements. The developer bought a City Centre site knowing what they were expected to provide, and are now trying to avoid their responsibilities of making the development part of the City Centre. 'Much needed housing' can be built in huge areas of underdeveloped Surrey that aren't the City Centre. Vancouver learned that residential will always out-bid commercial, unless the municipality only allows non-residential uses on almost every site in the CBD. That reserves future sites for market cycles that can deliver office, or hotel, or retail, or entertainment to make it a City Centre. Surrey hasn't attracted much recent office development, and still has less than Burnaby, even though they're supposed to be the region's second commercial core.
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