Surrey sustainability plan calls for self-contained municipality

It will be a city where residents won't have to commute somewhere else to get work.

The Surrey of the future will provide at least one job for every person, and those people will live in a safer, greener and prettier community.

So says the city's sustainability charter, an attempt to guide Surrey's booming development so people will enjoy living here 50 years from now.

The final draft of the plan was approved at a stakeholders meeting with representatives from different community groups on Thursday.

Mayor Dianne Watts said the rapid rate of change in Surrey requires a long-range road map, unlike other cities where planners are dealing with mostly completed neighbourhoods.

"It's like having a blank slate," Watts told The Leader following the meeting.

Watts said Surrey residents know the city long ago ceased to be a so-called bedroom community for workers who drive to other Lower Mainland cities.

The charter aims to complete that transformation by encouraging more businesses to locate in Surrey near their employees.

At the same time, the charter hopes to give people more reasons to remain in Surrey by building pedestrian-friendly, environmentally conscious neighbourhoods where people can walk instead of drive.

As well, the charter calls on the federal and provincial governments to fund a better public transit system for Surrey.

For years, Watts said, local taxpayers have funded transit on the other side of the Fraser River, and it's time some of that money was spent on B.C.'s second-largest city.

"It's our turn."

The charter will be further reviewed by council before it is passed, likely some time in September.

The municipality is already advertising for a sustainability manager.

dferguson@surreyleader.com