Southlands Designation to be Decided at Meeting Tonight

Delta Staff members have released a draft of the new Tsawwassen Area Plan (TAP) that will be discussed and ratified at a final Committee meeting tonight (Thursday, August 19, 7:00 pm, Annacis Room, City Hall), including policies regarding the future use of the Southlands.

Although the TAP recommends agricultural designation be maintained for the Southlands, it notes that this statement may be amended after the August 19th meeting due to several members of the Committee encouraging residential development on these lands.

Results from the Ipsos Reid survey commissioned by Delta Council in June of this year showed clear majority support (62%) for maintaining the designation of the land as agricultural. It is expected that there will be a large public turnout for this final TAP Committee meeting.

“Given the clear direction from the community at all stages of public consultation, I cannot understand why this issue is still being discussed,” stated Dana Maslovat, one of the organizers of Southlands the Facts, “Although I am optimistic the right decision will be made and Southlands will remain agricultural, it appears that some members of the Committee are trying to push their own agenda rather than representing the will of the people.”

The potential re-designation of the Southlands agricultural land to accommodate a housing development is by far the most contentious component of the process undertaken to revise the existing Tsawwassen Area Plan. Any re-designation will change the Official Community Plan and open up the Southlands for a 1900 unit housing development by Century Holdings. This piece of farmland was the cause of the longest public hearing in Commonwealth history and a resident run plebiscite in 1989, which prevented a 2000 unit development that was proposed for the same property.