1400 apartments proposed for Tsawwassen Town Centre Mall facing intense opposition
Protests at Delta city hall
TLDR: Tsawwassen Town Centre Mall is an eight-acre site, with a lot of surface parking. There's a proposal to redevelop it with four high-rises up to 25 storeys, with 1400 apartments and a new library. The opposition is very intense: they staged a protest at Delta city hall. If you'd like to counterbalance them (or register your opposition!), it takes about 60 seconds to submit a brief survey to Delta city hall. The survey closes tomorrow (Sunday).
People move where the jobs are. Metro Vancouver has lots of jobs and not enough housing. So then prices and rents have to rise to unbearable levels to force people to give up and leave, to crowd into older housing, or worst of all, end up homeless. Younger people are being crushed and driven out because housing is so scarce and expensive. It's a problem across the entire region.
Land in Metro Vancouver is limited by ocean and mountains, so there's a lot of proposals to redevelop malls and parking lots for housing. (Like the Safeway near Broadway Station.)
Tsawwassen Town Centre Mall is pretty far south - by bus, it's about 50 minutes from Bridgeport Station. That said, it's about half an hour by car, and there's a park-and-ride there.
There's a proposal to build four high-rises on the site, with a new library and grocery store to replace the existing ones. It'll include about 1100 condo apartments and 300 rental apartments (about 70 will be non-market).
In this case, the project is consistent with Delta's Official Community Plan, so there won't be a public hearing, but city council still needs to say yes, and the opposition is really intense. A recent story in the Delta Optimist, about an open house on Monday: "This week's session, which followed an open house held March 3 at the North Delta Recreation Centre, saw a group protesting outside, with extra security and police officers on hand."
It's natural that people want to keep their neighbourhood the same - they like it the way it is, that's why they live there. But that's also how we end up with vacancy rates near zero, skyrocketing prices and rents, and an aging population as younger people give up and leave.
The housing shortage is a solvable problem. We have people who want to live and work here; we have other people who want to build housing for them. The problem is, we don't let them.
Posted to Reddit. An interesting comment:
I regularly take the 602 from the top of the hill in Tsawwassen and I can get to Waterfront in less than an hour. If we can get the 602 to run throughout the day, Tsawwassen becomes significantly more accessible.
Someone else commented:
Agreed. I take the 601. In Tsaw, it’s mainly cars so if we get more density and people taking transit, it can lead to more frequent bus service.
More
Century Group Proposing 4-Tower Redevelopment Of Tsawwassen Town Centre Mall. Howard Chai, Storeys, December 2024.
Over 1,400 homes in four towers eyed for Tsawwassen Town Centre Mall redevelopment. Kenneth Chan, Daily Hive, January 2025.
Opposition: Dream South Delta. "Growth? Yes. Towers? No."
Editorial by Ian Jacques: No place for vicious online attacks. He quotes a recent comment on the city of Delta’s Facebook page: “You sell your souls to the devil and destroy Ladner for your own money gain, greed, greasy palms, secret deals, and money under the table, all done in the dark with your heartless evil souls that are going to hell where they belong.”