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- Friday - Sept. 6, 2024 - Development could signal South Fraser Way change
Friday - Sept. 6, 2024 - Development could signal South Fraser Way change
Grace Kennedy
September 06, 2024
☀ High 33C
Good morning!
We are currently hosting a visitor in our home. He’s going to be here for a month, but so far seems to be a low-maintenance guest. He’s been keeping to himself, but my kids love that he’s around. My only qualm is that I keep having to clean his vomit off the floor.
He is, of course, a cat. Pax is an elderly orange boy, and is taking to his temporary new home shockingly well. As a long-time cat lover, I’m enjoying having a feline in the house again. As a long-time allergy sufferer, I can only say: please send more Reactine.
–Grace
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No discount for UFV students on the FVX
The Fraser Valley’s most popular bus route doesn’t have enough room to give UFV students a discount, BC Transit says. 📷 BC Transit/Facebook
University students are returning to the Fraser Valley’s post-secondary campuses. But they still won’t be getting a discount on the valley’s most-popular transit route, because the buses don’t have room for more riders.
Students at the University of the Fraser Valley pay $40 each semester for a U-Pass for transit in Chilliwack, Abbotsford, and Mission. But, years after UFV’s student union first began the program, they still don’t have an agreement to use the Fraser Valley Express. And that is unlikely to change anytime soon.
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Need to Know
💸 The YouTube channel of a former Langley MP candidate has been linked to Russian operatives, US Justice officials say [Langley Advance Times]
🏥 Chilliwack council members say Metro Vancouver hospitals are sending homeless patients to the community, despite shelters not having enough room for them [Fraser Valley Today]
🔥 BC Supreme Court has ordered CN Rail to pay $16 million for causing a 2015 wildfire near Lytton [CTV]
🔪 A correctional officer at Kent Institution was stabbed by an inmate last weekend [Agassiz Harrison Observer]
🐕 An injured golden retriever who was found near Deroche has made a ‘remarkable comeback’ and will be available for adoption soon [Fraser Valley Today]
🎒 More than 100 after-school care spaces have opened in three Chilliwack elementary schools [Chilliwack Progress]
⚖ Vanessa Terry’s partner has been charged with murder in relation to her death on Seabird Island this April [Agassiz Harrison Observer]
🎵 Paula Abdul has cancelled her upcoming Abbotsford concert so she can recover from unknown injuries [Abbotsford News]
🏆 Three Langley residents, including a high school teacher and former school trustee, have been honoured for their contributions to the community [Langley Advance Times]
✈ A new academy for aircraft maintenance technicians has opened in Abbotsford [Abbotsford News]
💉 BC will keep giving out its existing COVID shots until new vaccines arrive; other provinces are following a federal directive to destroy the existing doses [CBC]
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The Agenda
Proposed development could signal start of South Fraser Way change
The site of a prominent Abbotsford car dealership could become one of the city’s largest residential and commercial developments.
An application has been submitted to redevelop the current South Fraser Way home of Magnuson Ford. The land beneath the car dealership was sold in 2021 for $16 million and now developers want to build three six-to-eight-storey buildings on the narrow lot.
If approved, the project would be one of the largest housing developments along South Fraser Way since the city adopted its City Centre plan, which envisioned a denser, more walkable core than the current swath of parking lots and malls.
The application suggests the new buildings would include 265 residential units and 43,000 square feet of commercial space. Magnuson Ford did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2019, the City of Abbotsford adopted its new plan for the city centre area along South Fraser Way. Five years later, there have been several large buildings constructed along north-south arteries connecting to South Fraser Way, but little development on the city’s busiest road. A massive housing development across from the Home Depot is slated for construction, but there has been little of the development necessary to turn the area into the bustling urban area envisioned in the plan.
The development of the Magnuson lot could spur one major change. Currently, the north-south streets closest to the property are staggered. The city centre plan suggests that Garden Street be extended throughout the Magnuson property and that Commercial Street, a very short road along the western edge of the lot, be closed.
The development of the Magnuson lot would allow Garden Street to provide a new direct route between George Ferguson Way and Hillcrest Avenue. Garden is one of three new north-south road connections the plan envisions creating a more even distribution of traffic and reducing the burden on Gladwin Road and Trethewey Street.
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🗓 Things to do
Pop-up paint: Abbotsford artist-in-residence Molly Gray will be painting in a pop-up studio at the Clearbrook Library on Saturday, Sept. 7. View the creative process and contribute to a collaborative painting. Details online.
CCR concert: The Bad Moon Riders, a Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band, is performing at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre on Saturday, Sept. 7. Doors open at 7pm. Tickets online.
Family yoga: Chilliwack's Greendale Acres hosts a family yoga session on Sunday, Sept. 8 at 1pm. Bring your own mat, although a towel will be fine for kids if necessary. Details and tickets online.
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