We need vision or a clean slate

Editor: 

Surrey’s new Sustainability Charter states that in the future, our city will provide at least one job for every person.

The mayor asserts that we have a “blank slate” in shaping our city’s future. 

So the first chapter in this new sustainability plan is the Semiahmoo Town Centre redevelopment.

Given the assertion in the charter “that our city’s residents will not have to commute to other areas to work,” we should be developing a strong commercial core.

Logically, the prime local for a commercial/retail complex would be the current Semiahmoo Shopping Centre property. A smaller version of Vancouver’s Pacific Centre would be an appropriate template for this type of development.

Ours is still an automobile- dependent society, so to get to the real truth, all you have to do is count the cars.

The current Semiahmoo proposal has provisions for 1,709 parking stalls for residents of the various towers.

By far, the smallest of the towers is the eight-storey office tower. Parking provisions for the office tower are a mere 75 stalls. The new residents to new jobs ratio is more than 22:1.

If the Semiahmoo development is the first chapter in our “sustainability plan book,” then the mayor and the developer are writing a farce and a tragedy.

Speaking of jobs, it’s about time that Surrey’s mayor and council start to do theirs.

We, as a community, have the power to develop on terms that are acceptable to the citizens.

We don’t need the developers to be the ghost writers of our community plan.

If council keeps coming up with a blank when vision is required, then it is time for a new slate.

Stephen Christie, Surrey