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From the Vancouver Sun (btw Surrey is to Vancouver as probably Brampton is to Toronto)
www.canada.com/vancouver/...98ff2eb45e
Towering plan set for Surrey
Would be Canada's highest at 81 storeys
Lori Culbert
Vancouver Sun
October 27, 2005
CREDIT: Vancouver Sun Graphic
20 STOREYSCENTRAL CITY COMPLEXCurrently Surrey's tallest tower
CREDIT: Vancouver Sun Graphic
48 STOREYS, 491 FEETWall CentreCurrently Vancouver's tallest building
SURREY - Preliminary plans are underway to construct Canada's tallest highrise in Surrey -- a massive 81-storey building with residential, commercial and hotel space, Mayor Doug McCallum says.
"This will be the tallest building in Canada," McCallum told The Vancouver Sun in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
"It's 81 floors. That's four times the height of Central City, which is the tallest building [in Surrey] now."
If built, the project would be much taller than Vancouver's current tallest building, the 48-storey Wall Centre, and the skyscraper that's going to take over that title, the 60-storey Shangri-La, once it's completed in about 2008.
First Canadian Place in Toronto says on its website that it is now the country's tallest highrise, at 72 storeys. The CN Tower in Toronto remains Canada's tallest free-standing structure, stretching 1,815 feet (553 metres).
The proposed 81-storey Surrey building to be located near the King George SkyTrain station would, at about 900 feet, be four times higher than the tallest structure in Surrey right now: the 20-storey Central City office tower, attached to a shopping mall and an SFU campus, on 102 Avenue.
McCallum claimed architectural drawings, financing and other details are being finalized, and added the property is already zoned for this type of mixed-use building. He said the only approval required from council will be building permits, and he did not anticipate its unprecedented height would delay the project.
"I expect that it's going to move very quickly, I really do. We could very well see it starting in the ground in the next six months."
McCallum, who has been mayor for nine years, is facing his toughest challenge for re-election yet in this year's municipal election in Surrey, a city often criticized for urban sprawl, business parks and monster homes.
Critics frequently say that Surrey's land-use strategy contradicts the GVRD's Livable Region Strategic Plan, which encourages cities to plan new developments near town centres and transit hubs.
McCallum counters that this proposed project and others -- such as five highrise towers being built in Whalley, and permits issued for five more -- are proof his city is planning and developing responsibility.
But Dianne Watts, McCallum's main challenger for the mayor's chair, cautioned that this highrise will not be a done deal until an application for a building permit is presented to city hall.
"We continually talk to developers and investors with regards to building towers in the downtown core, and some come to fruition and some don't," she said, adding these projects are often years in the making.
McCallum says the people behind the proposed building include architect James Cheng, who designed Shangri-La, and Jung Ventures, the Korean-based developers involved in the five-tower Central City residential project -- just west of where the new highrise would be located.
Jung Ventures president CEO Miyung-Soo Jung did not return phone messages Wednesday.
Two-term Coun. Bob Bose said there are problems with the proposal, including zoning bylaws that require the distance between the property line and the front of the building to be at least 50 per cent of the height of the structure.
It's absurd. There would have to be massive variances permitted to the zoning. To achieve something of that height, without variances, would require a site of at least a square kilometre in size," he said.
Bose, a member of Surrey's new opposition party and a long-time foe of McCallum, said a phone call from The Sun late Wednesday was the first he'd heard of the project.
"So here we go again with the mayor making grand announcements on the eve of the election, on matters that have never been brought to council," Bose said.
He estimated an 81-storey building would be about 900 feet high, and that the building site is 300 feet above sea level -- putting the proposed skyscraper "perilously close to interfering with controlled airspace" for planes flying over Surrey en route to Vancouver airport.
Bose says he put forward a motion, which was not supported by councillors with McCallum's centre-right party, for Surrey to develop a plan to ensure it is paying attention to the quality of design of new towers.
"What is troubling me is that McCallum has never seen a high-rise he couldn't love," Bose said.
www.canada.com/vancouver/...98ff2eb45e
Towering plan set for Surrey
Would be Canada's highest at 81 storeys
Lori Culbert
Vancouver Sun
October 27, 2005
CREDIT: Vancouver Sun Graphic
20 STOREYSCENTRAL CITY COMPLEXCurrently Surrey's tallest tower
CREDIT: Vancouver Sun Graphic
48 STOREYS, 491 FEETWall CentreCurrently Vancouver's tallest building
SURREY - Preliminary plans are underway to construct Canada's tallest highrise in Surrey -- a massive 81-storey building with residential, commercial and hotel space, Mayor Doug McCallum says.
"This will be the tallest building in Canada," McCallum told The Vancouver Sun in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
"It's 81 floors. That's four times the height of Central City, which is the tallest building [in Surrey] now."
If built, the project would be much taller than Vancouver's current tallest building, the 48-storey Wall Centre, and the skyscraper that's going to take over that title, the 60-storey Shangri-La, once it's completed in about 2008.
First Canadian Place in Toronto says on its website that it is now the country's tallest highrise, at 72 storeys. The CN Tower in Toronto remains Canada's tallest free-standing structure, stretching 1,815 feet (553 metres).
The proposed 81-storey Surrey building to be located near the King George SkyTrain station would, at about 900 feet, be four times higher than the tallest structure in Surrey right now: the 20-storey Central City office tower, attached to a shopping mall and an SFU campus, on 102 Avenue.
McCallum claimed architectural drawings, financing and other details are being finalized, and added the property is already zoned for this type of mixed-use building. He said the only approval required from council will be building permits, and he did not anticipate its unprecedented height would delay the project.
"I expect that it's going to move very quickly, I really do. We could very well see it starting in the ground in the next six months."
McCallum, who has been mayor for nine years, is facing his toughest challenge for re-election yet in this year's municipal election in Surrey, a city often criticized for urban sprawl, business parks and monster homes.
Critics frequently say that Surrey's land-use strategy contradicts the GVRD's Livable Region Strategic Plan, which encourages cities to plan new developments near town centres and transit hubs.
McCallum counters that this proposed project and others -- such as five highrise towers being built in Whalley, and permits issued for five more -- are proof his city is planning and developing responsibility.
But Dianne Watts, McCallum's main challenger for the mayor's chair, cautioned that this highrise will not be a done deal until an application for a building permit is presented to city hall.
"We continually talk to developers and investors with regards to building towers in the downtown core, and some come to fruition and some don't," she said, adding these projects are often years in the making.
McCallum says the people behind the proposed building include architect James Cheng, who designed Shangri-La, and Jung Ventures, the Korean-based developers involved in the five-tower Central City residential project -- just west of where the new highrise would be located.
Jung Ventures president CEO Miyung-Soo Jung did not return phone messages Wednesday.
Two-term Coun. Bob Bose said there are problems with the proposal, including zoning bylaws that require the distance between the property line and the front of the building to be at least 50 per cent of the height of the structure.
It's absurd. There would have to be massive variances permitted to the zoning. To achieve something of that height, without variances, would require a site of at least a square kilometre in size," he said.
Bose, a member of Surrey's new opposition party and a long-time foe of McCallum, said a phone call from The Sun late Wednesday was the first he'd heard of the project.
"So here we go again with the mayor making grand announcements on the eve of the election, on matters that have never been brought to council," Bose said.
He estimated an 81-storey building would be about 900 feet high, and that the building site is 300 feet above sea level -- putting the proposed skyscraper "perilously close to interfering with controlled airspace" for planes flying over Surrey en route to Vancouver airport.
Bose says he put forward a motion, which was not supported by councillors with McCallum's centre-right party, for Surrey to develop a plan to ensure it is paying attention to the quality of design of new towers.
"What is troubling me is that McCallum has never seen a high-rise he couldn't love," Bose said.
