Smoke and Mirrors. A+
Century Group’s approach to their revised proposal is merely a show of smoke and mirrors. The revised proposal is a veiled version of phases 1 and 2 of their original proposal. They highlight the fact that the existing mall will remain open giving the impression of no further development. Fact: It was always going to remain open during phases 1 and 2 and only in phase 4 was it going to close for redevelopment. Make no mistake about it, the entire mall will eventually be redeveloped and therefore must be considered in relation to their revised proposal – particularly in respect to public services, infrastructure and traffic.
Number of towers INCREASE from 2 to 3
Century Group clearly hasn’t heard the concerns of the overwhelming majority of Tsawwassen residents who don’t want towers.
The revised proposal reduces maximum height of towers from 24 storeys to 18 storeys. This is still far too high for most residents. To achieve this and maintain a high-density count, they have discretely added in a third tower, increasing tower count density (number of towers per hectare) by a whopping 52%!
Final buildout: Number of towers could INCREASE from 4 to 7
If the methodology Century Group is applying in their revised proposal for phases 1 and 2 is carried over to the remainder of the mall site, as we expect it will be, the eventual buildout will include up to seven towers. This is substantially more towers than the four towers originally proposed.
Density is reduced by a paltry 8.5%
Century Group clearly hasn’t heard the concerns of the overwhelming majority of Tsawwassen residents who don’t want aggressive densification.
The revised proposal only reduces density by a paltry 8.5% from what was originally proposed. It now sits at 397 units per hectare. This is still an enormous number considering the existing density of multi-unit neighbourhoods surrounding the town core is 84 per hectare. Furthermore, its almost twice the limit of 200 units per hectare that Delta used to have in place for high density neighbourhoods, including the Tsawwassen town core.
