On a residential street in Surrey’s central neighbourhood of Whalley, a single-family home with a simple white exterior, unadorned facade and sharp-angled roofs has doubled as a mosque for many years. A sign above the door reads in Arabic “Masjid Al-Noor,” which translates into “mosque of lights.”
Now, its operators are working with a developer to transform the property and adjacent parcels, located in the 13500-block of 98A Avenue, into a 38-storey highrise with 373 residential units and a 2,029-square-metre mosque. After a public hearing for the development, Surrey city council approved the proposal this week.
Community Support and Opposition
“As president of Masjid Al-Noor, I have seen firsthand the need for the permanent community space where families, youth and cities can come together. This project will help meet the need, while also contributing new housing and investment to our city,” Janif Mohammed told council at the hearing. “Being a Muslim, we pray five times a day, and if we live in a highrise in this area, then all we must do is walk to the Masjid Al-Noor and pray.”
The application was submitted to the city by DF Architecture, which is part of a cluster of firms called Group 161. In Surrey’s City Centre, immigrants account for 51 per cent of the area’s population, and the neighbourhood is located near city hall, a shopping mall and a major park for outdoor events. The hub consists mostly of renters, and 32 per cent of residents take transit to work.
A few dozen mosque-goers spoke at the public hearing, including a few in opposition to the project. One individual said the project shouldn’t go forward because the community wasn’t consulted properly. The city received some complaints before the hearing as well, with most saying only the mosque should be built on the site. Overwhelmingly, however, most people seemed to support the plan. A total of 2,101 signatures were gathered on a petition in favour of the project, while 248 signatures were collected across two petitions opposed to the project.
Trend of Religious Sites with Housing
Places of worship have increasingly been tied to housing developments in recent years in Metro Vancouver. Typically, these projects have involved churches, said Charlotte Au, the director of real estate development at Wayfinder Developments, which has been involved in some of the projects.
“Church properties are coming to a point where they’re facing an aging building that is in need of more expensive capital repairs, and usually a shrinking congregation, so less donor-based to basically fund these repairs,” Au said. “Typically, the highest and best use for land includes some sort of residential use, and so that’s why churches are looking to combine residential uses with their church, so that they could try and hopefully get more value out of their land.”
Religious sites are typically in good locations, making redevelopment a benefit for municipalities, Au added. The Surrey project exemplifies this growing trend, offering both new housing and a permanent community space for worshippers.
