A proposal for Abbotsford’s tallest building has been approved by city council.
The project came before council on Tuesday (May 6) for consideration of rezoning and a development variance permit, which unanimously were given the thumbs-up.
The project calls for a 30-storey mixed-used building at 2736 and 2754 Garden St. across from Canadian Tire on the site of a former collision-repair business.
It required rezoning from the service commercial zone to the city centre mixed-use zone.
The development also required three development variance permits, including one to reduce the minimum required number of visitor parking spaces from 55 to 33.
According to a staff report to council, the building will include 346 residential units with approximately 569 square metres (6,124 square feet) of commercial retail space and a four-level underground parkade with 392 parking spaces.
The 346 suites will be broken up into: 114 studio units, 116 one-bedroom units, and 116 two-bedroom units.
The ground floor will accommodate seven commercial units each averaging 875 square feet.
The project will also include a pedestrian link from east to west to connect Allwood Street and Garden Street.
The initial plan – under a different developer – called for 31 storeys, 262 residential units, commercial space and a daycare.
The current project is led by local lawyer and developer Shawn Sidhu, whose team includes development manager Jerry Pol of Thrive Properties and architect Gord Klassen of Sitelines Architecture.
The site is the first in Abbotsford’s City Centre Neighbourhood Plan (CCNP) area to be proposed for a high-rise development.
That plan, developed in 2019, features South Fraser Way as the “transportation spine.” It is bordered by city hall and the civic precinct on the west, the Sikh temples on the eastern edge, Mill Lake and Peardonville Road in the south, and George Ferguson Way in the north.
The CCNP lays out that 450,000 square feet of additional commercial space is required to support the needs of the neighbourhood as it grows to 2040, as well as almost an additional 5,000 units of housing.
The plan also lays out that any tall buildings over six stories should be designed “so they are human-scaled, elegant and respectful of their surroundings.”
Abbotsford’s current tallest building is the 26-storey Mahogany Tower on Gladwin Road near Mill Lake, which was completed in late 2018.
The project by Quantum Properties was the subject of much controversy when it came before council in 2011. Neighbours complained that it was out of place in a single-family residential neighbourhood and would block their views.
But the project was approved by a 5-4 council vote.
