Resident opposition, infrastructure demands sink Lake Errock development

The Rise has been sunk.

Community opposition and demands from local officials have prompted a development company to shelve their plans for Harrison Rise, a massive proposed housing project near Lake Errock.

The developer, GWEB Holdings, had hoped to build nearly 500 detached houses, townhomes, and apartments on a gravel quarry overlooking Lake Errock.

The project had the potential to triple the population of the tiny community on the north side of the Fraser River. But its future looks dim now, with the developer yanking an application that needed approval before any homes were to be built.

A big plan for a small community

The Harrison Rise proposal was ambitious, and not just because of its relatively remote location.

With plans for 485 homes—including 145 detached houses with suites, nearly 100 townhomes, and a 67-unit apartment building—the development would have been one of the largest housing projects built this century in the eastern Fraser Valley. It would have been unprecedented in the region’s rural areas; located in the unincorporated Electoral Area C, the subdivision would dwarf the nearby Lake Errock community.

To proceed, GWEB needed the Fraser Valley Regional District to agree to subdivide a property previously used as a gravel pit and change its Official Community Plan for the local area. To get the staff and politicians at the FVRD on board, the developers needed to do two things: consult with local residents about the potential impact on the local community, and promise to pay for various infrastructure and amenity improvements to serve the hundreds of new residents the project would bring to the area.

Those two tasks are often related.

Technically, local governments levy development cost charges and ask for amenity contributions in order to cover the downstream costs of growth. The developer of any large project will usually be expected to kick in money or land for general infrastructure upgrades (like roads, water and sewer infrastructure) to accommodate growth and improved local amenities (like parks and sidewalks) that can be used by both new and existing residents.

Because the final decision whether to approve or reject a project lies with elected officials, community sentiment also plays a significant role in determining the scale of those demands.

If there is vocal opposition to a project because residents expect it to negatively impact their neighbourhood, a developer might be asked to contribute more amenities. Paying for things like parks, sidewalks, or other improvements can allow a developer to soothe local opposition and, by doing so, give elected leaders a reason to support a development that might otherwise be politically toxic.

But sometimes, the math doesn’t work and a proposal triggers so much local opposition that a developer decides they can’t afford to pay for everything necessary to balance the cost-benefit equation for residents and the local government.

That appears to be what has happened with the Harrison Rise project.

After three years of work, GWEB has yanked its rezoning application for the project because it says the FVRD demands made the project unfeasible.

Given the scale of the project, regional district staff had asked GWEB to pay for several expensive projects for the local area.

Some of those, like a bigger wastewater treatment plant and new sanitary servicing plan, were intended to cover the added strain of so many local residents. Some, like a pedestrian crossing of Lougheed Highway, would help mitigate safety issues and integrate the new development into the surrounding community. And others, like paying for transit to and from Lake Errock and boosting trails in the area, would be focused on providing new benefits to existing residents.

Last year, continued community opposition led the regional district’s elected board to ask staff to seek out another, undefined community benefit “in response to persistent community opposition to the proposal.”

GWEB had paid to finance planning work necessary before the OCP update and its rezoning application were approved. That work included an analysis of the project’s impact on local infrastructure and community amenities.

That work isn’t done yet, but GWEB has decided to yank its rezoning application anyways.

It specifically cited the costs of fulfilling the FVRD’s demands in relation to the proposed wastewater project. In January, GWEB had asked the regional district to waive certain engineering requirements, declaring them unnecessary. Those included relaxing odour control requirements and allowing sludge to be hauled elsewhere, rather than processed on-site.

The project’s manager, Andrew Martin, said the developers could finance a wastewater treatment plant that would be big enough for the development’s first phase, but that they couldn’t build a facility large enough for two future phases of building. It said it could provide land for an expansion, but not finance a larger plant.

In his January email warning that the developer couldn’t meet the FVRD’s wastewater demands, Martin wrote “We believe if this project were to be cancelled it would be a great loss for Area C and the surrounding FVRD communities… and although the area seems very rural the same issues that exist in the more urban areas of the lower mainland exist in Area C.”

Martin said the project could improve housing diversity, provide jobs, increase environmental protections, and lead to the creation of more trails and parks.

But there has been a distinct lack of enthusiasm from locals and the regional district.

The FVRD duly declined the requests, leading GWEB to walk away from the rezoning application. The company will continue to seek an amendment to the local OCP. If approved, that would reduce the bureaucratic hurdles for GWEB or any future developer. (It would also significantly increase the value of the land, if GWEB were to attempt to sell it.)

The need to rezone the land, though, will remain—and with that, the need to pay for local infrastructure to accommodate the development and ease the concerns of locals.

FVRD staff say economic and technical barriers will continue to pose a challenge to future development on the site.

The current economic landscape for greenfield development in the electoral areas is “challenging,” staff wrote in a report set to be delivered at tomorrow’s meeting of the FVRD’s electoral area directors. They say increasing costs and economic uncertainty have made it harder to finance the type of infrastructure projects needed to service new developments in rural areas.

“It is uncertain whether these economic conditions are short term or long term in nature and what impact they will have on the future redevelopment potential of the gravel pit site,” staff continue. “Additional cost uncertainties related to a pedestrian crossing of Lougheed highway and unforeseen development costs that are likely to arise through the rezoning process all contribute to the overall uncertainty regarding the current viability of the proposal.”

In other words, any future developer is likely to face some of the same challenges and demands that led GWEB to back out.

Whether for better or worse, the Harrison Rise project would have changed the face of Lake Errock.

For now, at least, the tiny community will stay tiny.

/