Another high-rise proposal will soon be submitted to the City of Delta, an application that could stand a much better chance at receiving approval.
Council this week discussed the efforts by the owners of the North Delta Inn site, located at 70th Avenue and Scott Road, where a major redevelopment application is in the works.
The site is located within a designated higher-density, high-rise node in the corridor, unlike where a recently failed 35-storey high-rise proposal would have been built just down the road at 75A Avenue.
City manager Seam McGill told council the owners have been working hard putting everything together, but there’s been a delay due to city staff being able to schedule a workshop.
After council reviews the plan at the workshop, the next step would be for the owners to revise the plans to address comments provided by council.
A public information meeting would then follow.
Staff are hoping to schedule a workshop this month or January.
In the meanwhile, council agreed to extend the permit for the temporary liquor store at the site.
Council earlier this year agreed with a staff recommendation to deny granting a three-year extension for the temporary liquor store and instead only extended the temporary use permit for one year with conditions.
Those conditions included a detailed development concept submitted to the city, a concept that includes details on proposed uses, density, form and character, vehicular and pedestrian circulation, parking, preliminary traffic analysis and details regarding the relationship between the North Delta Inn site and adjacent properties.
A complete development application for the property is to be submitted by April 2020
The owners also originally had to host a public information meeting by the end of October of this year and a complete development application by the end of December.
Failure to meet the conditions could have resulted in two weeks’ notice given to cease operations of the liquor store.
That timeline has been pushed to later, however.
A report to council notes, “The owner made considerable progress on preparing plans for the redevelopment of the North Delta Inn site and has addressed a majority of the comments provided by staff.”
Located across from Scottsdale Mall, the hotel at the site was torn down three years ago after the city moved to close it.
The former hotel at the time had been used as an unauthorized low-income housing complex and it was riddled with code violations.
The site had previously been the subject of a controversial high-rise proposal that never made it to the council table
The city allowed a liquor store that was still operating on the site was permitted to relocate for three years to another building fronting the property.
That temporary use permit expired June 28, and the owners asked for a three-year extension.
A staff report earlier this year noted the original temporary use permit was granted so the owner could move forward with plans to demolish the hotel and submit a development application that would likely include a request to keep a liquor store, but very little progress was made.
The property is also bounded by a vacant gas station property fronting Scott Road that has been put up for sale. It’s also owned by the North Delta Inn owners,
There’s also a separate old strip mall on one side that was approved this year for redevelopment into a 188-unit condo complex.
Nicholson Road is at the back.
The earlier staff report noted that giving a three-year extension would have been “too onerous given the desirability of redevelopment on this site.”
The site is owned by a numbered company which retained the services of former city councillor Scott Hamilton of Quadrant Management to make the application for the extension for the liquor store.
He told the Optimist this year that the upcoming development application will be a real showcase for Delta.
Meanwhile, the city could have its own ideas for the former gas station property.
Council on Monday agreed the parcel could be an important one and asked staff to come back with a separate report.
