TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2014
YOUR NO. 1 SOURCE FOR NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER AND ENTERTAINMENT
THENOWNEWSPAPER.COM
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @THENOWNEWSPAPER
S U R R E Y - N O R T H D E LTA E D I T I O N
A place of comfort Surrey Clubhouse program defines people by their abilities
Inside
11
Viewpoint Sports Classifieds
8 21 24
Semiahmoo Town Centre
Character first, revitalization a close second SEMIAHMOO TOWN CENTRE Amy Reid
Now staff Twitter @amyreid87
W
VIEW OUR INTERACTIVE MAP WITH
David Cann and Kristen Smith want to preserve their neighbourhood’s small-town feel. Semiahmoo Town Centre includes about 170 acres of land. It is roughly bound by 20th Avenue to the north, 16th Avenue to the south, 150th Street to the east and 154th Street to the west. (Photo: KEVIN HILL)
hile city plans allow for increased density in Semiahmoo Town Centre, some residents say the area lacks the infrastructure to support a large increase in population. “Where are the roads? Where is the transit system?” questioned David Cann of the Semiahmoo Residents Association. “Can the city continue to ignore certain problems such as the bottleneck of White Rock and the shortage of medical facilities as being out of their jurisdiction?” While Cann recognizes that Surrey is expected to house many more people in the future, he believes the Semiahmoo area is expected to do more than its fair share. Cann went on to say South Surrey has seen a high rate of growth over the last decade, and the city has consistently approved
new commercial areas to the detriment of the Semiahmoo Town Centre. Big box stores such as Walmart, Home Depot and Future Shop have gone into new developments, he said. “First Peninsula Village, then Southpoint and then Grandview. We used to walk, now we have to drive,” he said. “We have progressively lost commercial business from Semiahmoo Town Centre to newly developed areas, by far the biggest and most significant being Grandview.... They can’t undo these errors.” Cann also took issue with city plans to densify along the 152nd Street corridor in Semiahmoo Town Centre. To Cann, the plans don’t make any sense at all. He says there is not enough infrastructure to support the existing population, adding people already have to drive for their goods and services. A 2009 staff report said the town centre’s population was about 4,800, and the number of jobs was approximately 4,500. The anticipated built-out population, based on stage one of the land use plan, was 11,604 and the expected number of jobs, 5,078. see HIGH-DENSITY › page 3