Fraser Valley Lot Study

Planned for apartments. Still a house.

Across eight municipalities, 17,367 lots sit in an OCP designation meant for apartments or other multi-family housing and still hold a single house. Click a city, a lot on the map or a square on the heat map to go to the detailed research.

Studied in depth

Surrey11,7367,644 Low-Rise, 1,371 Mid- and High-Rise, 2,721 Urban IIMedian lot 18.8 × 37.3 m, 683 m²Open →Maple Ridge831Town Centre, Lougheed corridor and Maple Meadows plansMedian lot 20.1 × 40 m, 768 m²Open →Abbotsford1,048Apartment, Urban Centre and City Centre ResidentialMedian lot 21.3 × 33.7 m, 696 m²Open →City of Langley232Low Rise, Mid Rise and Transit-Oriented, plus every house lot in the TOA ringsMedian lot 18.4 × 37.1 m, 669 m²Open →Township of Langley1,622Apartment and mixed-use plan areas, and the Willowbrook TOAMedian lot 12.8 × 28.0 m, 306 m²Open →Surrey · Tier 3 deep dive5,849house lots 400 to 800 m from SkyTrain, 4,353 at Surrey Langley stations opening in 20298 storeys and 3.0 FAR must be allowed; no resident parking can be requiredOpen →Conclusion3opportunities, small to large: Abbotsford, the City of Langley and Surrey Tier 31.5, 2.0 and 2.5 FSR on a single lot or twoOpen →

Screened, not yet studied in depth

Mission1,438Mid-Rise Residential and Plus, Neighbourhood Centre, DowntownMedian lot 18.9 × 37.6 m, 682 m²Open →Chilliwack385Low Rise Residential and Mixed UseMedian lot 20.1 × 37.9 m, 713 m²Open →Pitt Meadows75Residential High and Medium, Town Centre CommercialMedian lot 13.8 × 33.6 m, 454 m²Open →

Bars show the mix of designation types in each city, using the colours of the map below.

Where the land is

Apartment, up to about 6 storeysMid-rise, high-rise and coresMixed use and centresGround-oriented multi-unitExpo LineSurrey Langley SkyTrain, opening 2029Click a lot or a city for details and a link to its page

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Lot shapes

Width against depth for every lot on the map. Turn municipalities and types on and off, or click a square to highlight those lots on the map above.

Share of the selected lots in each square

Each square covers one whole metre: the 18 column holds lots 18.0 to 18.9 m wide. The 36+ column and 50+ row gather the large parcels.

Four types

Every city names its designations differently. To compare them, each designation is placed in one of four types by the building form it intends.

municipality	apartment, up to about 6 storeys	mid-rise, high-rise and cores	mixed use and centres	ground-oriented multi-unit	total
Surrey	7,644 Low-Rise I and II	1,371 Mid-Rise I and II, High-Rise I and II, CBD		2,721 Urban II	11,736
Maple Ridge	460 Town Centre Apartment, Lougheed Apartment	179 Maple Meadows Residential, Town Centre Core, Lougheed Transit Core	192 Town Centre Flexible Mixed-Use, Lougheed Mixed-Use, Maple Meadows Mixed-Use		831
Abbotsford	952 Apartment	14 City Centre Residential	82 Urban Centre		1,048
Mission	1,217 Mid-Rise Residential Plus, Mid-Rise Residential		216 Neighbourhood Centre, Downtown	5 Attached Multi-unit Residential	1,438
Chilliwack	374 Low Rise Residential		11 Mixed Use		385
City of Langley	178 Low Rise Residential	44 Mid Rise Residential, Transit-Oriented Residential	10 Mixed Use		232
Township of Langley	34 Apartment and high density (neighbourhood plans)		37 Mixed use (neighbourhood and community plans)	1,551 Multi-family and townhouse	1,622
Pitt Meadows	15 Residential - High		5 Town Centre Commercial	55 Residential - Medium	75
Eight municipalities	10,874	1,608	553	4,332	17,367

Surrey's Mid-Rise (6 to 25 storeys) counts as mid-rise and high-rise. Maple Meadows Residential (8 to 12 storeys) and City of Langley's Mid Rise and Transit-Oriented Residential go there too. Township of Langley's plan labels were grouped by name: apartment and high density, mixed use, and everything else, mostly townhouse, as multi-family.

The research

01SurreyDesignations, TOA tiers, zoning, the station comparison of TOA rules, designation and zone.02Surrey Tier 3Parcel-level look at 5,849 house lots 400 to 800 m from SkyTrain: dimensions by station, what a single lot holds, parking.03Maple RidgeTown Centre, Lougheed corridor and Hammond plans, the three TOAs and the RM-2 and RM-3 zones.04AbbotsfordApartment land around the City Centre, land values and the RMM zone.05Langley, City and TownshipLot shapes around Willowbrook and Langley City Centre stations, the zone each lot has now and the zone it needs, and the City's single exit stair side yard.06Other municipalitiesMission, Chilliwack and Pitt Meadows, plus the screening tables for both Langleys: what the screening found and why they are not deep dives yet.07Conclusion: three opportunitiesSmall, medium and large. Abbotsford at 1.5 FSR, the City of Langley at 2.0, Surrey Tier 3 at 2.5, and the smaller openings elsewhere in the valley.