Surrey is moving ahead with a major project which has the potential to turn Whalley into the long-awaited Surrey City Centre.

The city has selected a design team for a 400,000 square-foot building which will house a new Surrey city hall, along with space for a science and innovation centre, which will be run in co-operation with Simon Fraser University. SFU's Surrey campus is located on an adjacent property.

There will also be commercial space for lease in the building.

Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning, along with Moriyama + Teshima Architecture, have been given the contract to design the new facility. Design work will begin immediately and is expected to be complete some time next year, with construction set to start late in 2010.

It's been a long time coming. Although Surrey has been calling the area "city centre" since before SkyTrain was completed to Whalley in 1994, there have been many fits and starts to making the area truly a city centre.

The Gateway project, which was built in conjunction with the SkyTrain line, offered an early glimmer of hope. It has both residential and commercial space, and along with the SkyTrain station, brought higher density to the area along 108 Avenue.

In recent years, development around the King George Station has also mushroomed, although thus far it is almost totally residential.

SkyTrain was the biggest step towards Whalley becoming a city centre. But the other most important step came when ICBC agreed to acquire Surrey Place and built a signature highrise on the property. The complex is now known as Central City. The high-rise houses SFU, which itself is a major factor in making Whalley more of an urban downtown area.

About 20 years ago or so, there were a number of planning sessions on the downtown concept. One of the points made by participants was the importance of having a lot of jobs in the downtown core, along with shops, restaurants and entertainment. The presence of a university campus was also deemed important. At that time, Surrey had no degree-granting university and there were serious concerns that young people from Surrey and North Delta were not taking part in post-secondary education as much as those closer to Vancouver.

The ICBC project offered the space for a university, which at first was Technical University of B.C. but later became SFU. The SFU connection has been very important for Surrey, not only to help turn Whalley into a downtown, but also to offer a much-needed service to a large and growing city, which has a high population of young people.

It's been suggested for years that if Surrey truly wanted to develop a city centre, the city needed a higher profile there. The city owns the North Surrey Recreation Centre property on 135 Street, along with several other buildings on that street north from 102 to 104 Avenue. 

The King George SkyTrain station and bus loop are located in this area as well.

There are many positives to the city moving the centre of government to Whalley, but there is at least one major negative. Because of the size of Surrey and the increasing growth in Newton, Cloverdale and South Surrey, it is important that people doing business  with the city can do at least some of it closer to home. The plans for moving city hall should include a commitment to keep a significant presence at the current city hall site — particularly for people wishing to pay taxes and bills, take out building permits, purchase dog licences and do other reasonably simple business transactions.

Parking is already tricky in Whalley, and with more development, it will become more challenging. It is also a long way from some parts of Surrey, notably South Surrey.

Overall, a city hall move to the Whalley area will be good for the 

city and will give a particularly strong boost to the city centre 

concept.

Frank Bucholtz writes Fridays for the Peace Arch News. He is the editor of the Langley Times.