Council rejected a plan at Monday’s meeting to build 51 townhouse units along Falcon Ridge on Sumas Mountain.
The area, on Estevan Court, had been the site of previous development plans, but none had moved forward.
The current plan called for a rezoning of the area from single-family residential to allow for townhouses. The applicant indicated that the necessary retaining walls required to support single-family lots were not economically feasible, and the development would only be viable if absorbed over multiple units.
Coun. Henry Braun expressed reservations about building anything on the site, which has a significant slope. He said he would prefer to wait for a peer review of the geotechnical review to indicate whether it was safe, before allowing anything to be built.
Coun. John Smith said that surrounding neighbours did not support a townhouse development, and while townhouses were probably safer than single-family homes, the site should never have been zoned for development.
Council ultimately denied the rezoning proposal.