Band seeks prosperity with destination malls

While some fear Tsawwassen and Ladner retailers will suff er because of the two malls, Delta Mayor Lois Jackson praises the plans

There was never any doubt about the outcome when members of the Tsawwassen First Nation gathered in their recreational hall this week to vote on two malls proposed for their lands.

All but three of the 111 people who voted backed the deal struck with Ivanhoe Corp. and Property Development Group to develop 1.8 million square feet of shopping and office space just off Highway 17 at 52nd Street.

The mega- mall complex is being built on a 72- hectare site that was removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve as part of the band’s treaty settlement with the provincial and federal governments.

Ivanhoe Cambridge will develop 1.2 million square feet of destination retail and entertainment space, a project that will be called Tsawwassen Mills. Property Development Group is developing Tsawwassen Commons, an outdoor retail mall.

The complex proposal was originally smaller but grew when the developers concluded that the market could handle more space. Entertainment facilities and a hotel are also being considered on the site, but no casino.

TFN Economic Development Corp. CEO Chris Hartman said that a major mall hasn’t been built in Metro Vancouver for a few decades.

Developers have been looking for years, he added, to find a large parcel of land that was under single ownership, close to major transportation routes — and not in the Agricultural Land Reserve.

“The timing is right for those lands to be developed and it just happens to be a first nations piece.”

Hartman has worked as a senior planner on major urban and resort developments, including the Univercity community at Simon Fraser University.

Hartman’s mandate, as he sees, is to build the “best new seaside community in Canada.” And to create a sustainable economy for the Tsawwassen First Nation, one that will give its members a standard of living on par with mainstream Canadians.

The TFN’S legislature also approved a neighbourhood plan last year that will bring 4,000 new residents, living in 1,684 housing units to be built over the next decade by the Aquilini Group and Onni Group. The new housing will be built on land owned by individual TFN members

The TFN land use plan also includes an industrial park for port- related activity. Stimulus money from the federal government two years ago provided infrastructure improvements for the park.

Hartman said the TFN land use plan envisions a compact, mixed- use community, not unregulated suburbanization.

“We have residential, commercial and industrial activities. So anyone who lives here can live, work and play, which is a very popular component among urban planners.”

The destination shopping complex has upset many in Delta who lament the loss of good farmland and fear the malls will bring more traffic and hurt small retailers in Ladner and Tsawwassen.

Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington said that she hopes the TFN succeeds in creating a strong community. “But putting a suburban mega- mall on land that was removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve to conclude their treaty is just the opposite of everything I believe in.”

Huntington said the land was valuable farmland and also part of an eco- system that supports a migratory bird flyway.”

One dissenting TFN member, Bertha Williams, told the media recently that she fears the mall will undermine her community’s rural character. “What we’re used to, the quietness, just the birds, the geese and the wildlife, I think it’s going to be disrupted totally.”

Delta Mayor Lois Jackson, however, is much more positive, praising the Tsawwassen First Nation for keeping her council and community in the loop about all its plans.

Jackson added that the TFN “will be in a position now where they will have the revenue stream to support their people and that’s a good thing.”

The Delta mayor also said that she believes that the megamall with its big- name retailers won’t hurt the smaller retailers in Ladner and Tsawwassen. “Shopping at the malls will be very different from shopping at little boutiques in Ladner and Tsawwassen, which have a niche and are very attractive to people.”

TFN legislature member Andrew Bak said he understands the importance of farmland protection to many Delta residents.

“But at same time Vicky ( Huntington) and others need to understand that we need to create a better economic climate for our members.

“If we can’t support people in our community then having all the food in the world isn’t going to help. Conventional agriculture simply won’t provide the resources we need to sustain our community in the short term or the long term.”

Bak added that other Metro Vancouver municipalities have developed and prospered “without any consultation with the Tsawwassen First Nation and now we have a chance to develop and we hope to.”