A hotel, conference centre and warehouses will be built at the northeast corner of 64 Avenue and 152 Street.
Council has passed third reading on a related bylaw without debate, following a public hearing.
The subject site is 25 acres, with 18 to be developed and seven to be donated to the city as part of the biodiversity corridor, and creek preservation.
The project features 11,692 square metres of warehouse space, 2,405 square metres of retail space, 8,121 square metre of self storage, 8,121 square metres of general office uses, 763 square metres for an "eating establishment," a 1,608 square metre conference centre, 12,077 square metre hotel, and a 929 square metre daycare centre. It's at 6456 and 6480 152 Street.
Speaker Richard Sullivan, of the pioneering Irish family, opposed the application, telling council that the "semi-wet lowland" downhill is natural bottom land for barn owls, hawks, herons, barn swallows, pheasants and songbirds, "and an occasional deer and infrequent Red Fox. This wildlife adjoins my farm and four other acreages to its immediate north.
"I've often thought that the above farmland should be acquired by the city for public use because of its two mountain panoramas and park-like setting and particularly since it's Surrey's geographic centre," Sullivan said. "In summary, it doesn't fly with me that this pastoral site, abutting today's blueberry farm with two
coho salmon waterways and a meadow-land for birds and raptors, plus its magnificent view of both the Golden Ears and Mount Baker, should have a proposed development under asphalt and concrete."
Deb Jack, president of Surrey Environmental Partners, reminded council "we have policy opposed to building on floodplain and this is floodplain."
Jack said there's been "no real mention" of Hyland Creek, which runs on the south side of the property parallel to 64 Avenue, "and its incredible importance. It is an extraordinary area of high biodiversity value."
"This is all going to impact that."
Mike Kompter, Hub Engineering Inc. one of the consultants on the project, noted the property was in the Agricultural Land Reserve but has been excluded.
"As part of the exclusion it was required that twice as much land be put back into the ALR, so in fact this project has actually increased the size of the ALR in the city of Surrey. So it wasn't just taken out, it required additional – twice as much – farm-able land to be put into the ALR," Kompter told council.
"There is no residential proposed here so there will be no negative impact on any school system. In fact this project will be providing a daycare centre."
A City of Surrey planning document indicates that while the project doesn't comply with the agricultural designation in both the Official
Community Plan and in the Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy, "given the location of the site and with historical technical reviews on the site deeming the site unsuitable for agriculture, staff are in support of the proposed amendments."
The property was excluded from the ALR in 2013.
