The public hearing for another contentious White Rock development proposal has been put on hold.
The hearing, on bylaws for the twin residential-tower Elegant development at 1454 Oxford St – in the Everall neighborhood of the city's west side – was to have taken place at 5:30 p.m. tonight (Monday, Oct. 17).
Instead, a notice posted on the city website Monday afternoon said, without explanation, that the hearing has been "deferred until further notice."
Hearings for the Forge Properties highrise development proposal in the same neighborhood have been postponed twice and are still on hold.
While the notice apologized "for the inconvenience," no explanation has been given for the deferment, and a request for further information from the city, including when the hearing might be rescheduled, has not been answered.
The hearings would have concerned a change in official community plan designation from multi-unit residential – low density to multi-unit residential – high density, rezoning from civic/institutional use to comprehensive development zone, and a phased development agreement to secure a community amenity contribution and regulate construction.
Opponents of the proposal, for two buildings, 24 and 21 storeys high – providing a total of 121 residential units – argue that it is out of keeping with the character of the neighborhood, that it will tax existing infrastructure and that it poses an environmental risk to the White Rock aquifer and is too close to existing city water wells on Oxford Street.
Questions have also been raised about a contingency of rezoning the property being a condition of White Rock's sale of some of the land (formerly property of the Epcor water utility) to Elegant, and also about contributions the developer made to campaigns of city councillors in the 2014 municipal elections.