White Rock associations join to protest redevelopment

Two groups on both sides of the Surrey-White Rock border have joined forces to fight what they describe as “aggressive and thoughtless development, apparently without regard for basic integrated concepts of urban planning.”

The Semiahmoo Residents Association (SRA) and the White Rock Ratepayers’ Association (WRRA) have released a joint statement outlining how the two groups plan to “rally together to preserve (the Semiahmoo Town Centre’s) unique features before the profiteers rip them from our hearts.”

SRA members have spoken out against a plan by Bosa Development Corp., which bought the Semiahmoo Shopping Centre in 2002, to build 1,160 dwelling units in six towers – ranging from 18 to 36 storeys – on the Surrey site bordered by 16 Avenue, 152 Street, 18 Avenue and Martin Drive.

The preliminary proposal includes an eight-storey office building, a number of four-storey commercial residential buildings, new roadways, underground parking and a climate-controlled food court. A public meeting on the proposed development was held in June.

Two blocks south of 16 Avenue, Bosa Properties – a separate company – is completing the first two of four Miramar Village towers, a project long opposed by WRRA members.

SRA president David Cann said the two groups hope that combining efforts will provide strength in numbers, as both have been somewhat ineffective in lobbying their respective politicians.

“Our main concern is that we are not being listened to by council,” SRA president David Cann said. “The majority of people... moved here with the idea that we have a small-town community. Now we’re in danger of losing what we have and becoming another West End or False Creek.”

Jean Kromm, WRRA secretary and past-president, said her members felt it was a natural move to join forces with the Surrey group.

“It’s a show of support. (We have) a mutual concern for the urbanization of the Peninsula,” Kromm said.

“We simply said, ‘This is our neighbourhood and we’re concerned.’ We don’t consider 16th (Avenue) that much of a boundary.”

Cann itemized his criticisms of Surrey’s planning department and its processes, as it relates to Semiahmoo Town Centre, in a letter to Surrey council members last week.

“Not only is the process so designed as to minimize meaningful input from the electorate but, in my opinion, allows staff to interpret the system so as to tilt the balance heavily in favour of the developer,” Cann writes.

But Surrey Couns. Judy Higginbotham and Bob Bose say higher-density developments are exactly what the city needs.

“It’s still a work in progress. The developer is working with (city) staff and BC Hydro and TransLink, to see if a bus spot or depot can be added, and to see if we can find savings by using geothermal energy,” Higginbotham told the Peace Arch News.

“We’d like to see density in one spot. The denser it is, the more affordable it can be. We’re trying to build sustainable communities so people don’t have to drive, they can just walk to the theatre, the grocery store and grab a coffee, right where they live.”

Bose agreed, and likened the idea to Newport Village in Port Moody, a development that features a wide variety of residential and commercial buildings.

“People are wanting to create a sense of village,” Bose said. “We are running out of land (on which to develop). The general feeling, or certainly my point of view, is that we must increase density.”

Bose said council agreed in 2006 to increase densities in the area, and pointed to a two-phase Semiahmoo Town Centre study that council asked for in 2004, which recommends increasing density there.

“Everyone has a right to their point of view, but I think (Cann) and I may need to agree to disagree on this,” Bose said.

According to the joint SRA/WRRA statement, the groups “will work together in an attempt to save our community.

“We define our community, we need to be part of the equation,” the news release states.

Nicholas Lai, Surrey’s planning manager for South Surrey, said Bosa Development Corp. must now take a look at the issues raised at the public meeting, including parking, density and building height concerns, before bringing the development proposal back to Surrey council.

Higginbotham said she does not expect to see the proposal return to council before the end of this year.