The new city Firehall proposal is going to Council on Thursday (October 24) but it is just a small part of a massive residential development project for the Pacific Mazda site that spans a half city block at Cook, Yates, and Johnson. The proposed densities for a site this large are unprecedented at 24% higher than the maximums set by the Official Community Plan (OCP). To date, the densest development of similar scale in the City is the Hudson District. This application will be 33% more dense than the Hudson District and not located Downtown, but at the edge of Harris Green on the Fernwood Border.
Through an FOI, the DRA obtained a heavily redacted copy of the contract between the City and developer to build the Firehall.
This contract was negotiated in private before any public consultation took place and the commitments made in the Firehall contract tying it to the approval of the entire development were kept from the public until the FOI request.