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At 89, Elsa owns the pool Surrey’s Elsa de Leeuw has been making waves with the White Rock Wave master swim club. The 89-yearold holds 18 provincial records and 16 Canadian records in the pool, with her four newest standards coming in her first competition as a member of the 90-94 age class. See story on page 18. (Photo: KEVIN HILL)
S U R R E Y - N O R T H D E LTA E D I T I O N
‘It’s a different neighbourhood’ Morgan Heights resident says his South Surrey community is reeling under the pressure of ongoing development
Morgan Heights Jacob Zinn
Now contributor Twitter @jacobzinn
V
andalism, break-ins and a transient population aren’t commonly associated with South Surrey, but Karsten Roh saw his share of undesirable activity in his neighbourhood about seven years back. That was when developers started paving over previously rural areas of Morgan Heights to make way for big box stores, townhomes and shopping centres in the nearby Grandview area.
Roh’s neighbourhood sits just north of 24th Avenue on the east side of Highway 99, stretching to 164th Street, but when Grandview Corners was being built, his quiet street changed. “In the past, there was really nothing,” said Roh, who has lived on a triangular lot along 156th Street since 1993. “Kids could go out there and play street hockey if they wanted to – it was that sort of a quiet street. And it wasn’t even a dead end.” The development put pressure on 156th Street, which is a diversion road off of Croydon Drive, a street that would otherwise seamlessly connect Morgan Crossing to Rosemary Heights to the north. As part of the area’s development deal, the dirt road on 156th was covered in asphalt, and Roh saw that as an invitation for commuters to cut through his neighbourhood. “Nobody took Croydon and 156th, there was nothing going on there at all,” he said.“Once they paved that, that was the green light – ‘OK, everybody, this is the way to get from 24th to 32nd (avenues). see STRESS OF DEVELOPMENT › page 3
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ith our series we call “Neighbourhoods,” we are coming to your area to tell its story. Recognizing that every community is unique, both in their character and in the
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