FRASER HEIGHTS COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION MINUTES
September 19, 2018
President’s report
- Web site – fhca.ca
- Ed MacIntosh, president
- FHCA is a volunteer non-profit organization – we volunteer our time to represent the community dealing with issues that affect our community such as safety, traffic, development
- The FHCA has met four times a year, in the past, to discuss issues that affect our community but we will be meeting 3 times this year (see dates at end of minutes).
- FHCA helps shape policy and issues that involve our community
- If you have problems in our community, please send your information to us and we will look into these issues (go to Contact Us on the fhca.ca website or send email to directors@fhca.ca). This is our primary site to collect comments from residents about community issues so we know about them and can send them on to the City.
- Membership is free and open to all residents. If you are not currently on the email list, go to our website and sign up (on the right side of website page – click on become a member). You will receive three notifications and three reminders of the upcoming meetings per year. There may also be notifications of open houses or events affecting FH residents.
Treasurer’s report: The report was given with current financial status.
RCMP update on safety and security – District #2 Commander for Guildford/Fleetwood, Sgt Mike Spencer, was not able to attend tonight (Community Response Unit). His office is at 10395-148 St. The best way to reach him is through the following email address: fleetwood@rcmp-grc.gc.ca. If Mike is away, other officers can access this email to insure your issue is dealt with. Mike can also be reached at: mike.spencer@rcmp-grc.gc.ca and voicemail messages can be left for him at phone # 778-593-3396 if your concerns are not urgent. If urgent, dial 911.
- Please note the District 2 office has been closed since a sewage line ruptured in August. There has been no given re-opening date and it could still take a few months to make all the repairs.
Trans Mountain (TM) pipeline update, NEB Decision Letter dated August 29, 2018 confirming route through Fraser Heights:
- There has been a court hearing that has halted construction
- CN and Provincial Ministry of Transportation – Trans Mountain could never get the two together so they made a deal with the City of Surrey as to pipeline location as it runs through Surrey.
Development – residential:
- Directors from FHCA met with Ron Gill, head of planning for City of Surrey, in regards to contentious issues such as Parkview Place. Our association wants to be involved up-front rather than have to get a large number of residents to go to council meetings to try to make changes at a later stage in planning. The City now sends potential developers to our association to discuss their plans prior to submitting their proposals to City planning.
- 9650, 9684 and 9716 182A Street – townhouses are proposed for this site. The group of townhouses facing 182A will look more like single family homes to be a better match for the single family houses across the street. The whole complex will be served by one entrance.
- 100 Ave at 176 – 77 townhouses will be going in there but building has not yet started.
- Our association is making sure the townhouse complexes do not go over the limit of 17 per acre for those sites. Although the City regulations state there must be 1 extra parking space per 5 units, we have insisted there will be 1 extra spot for every 3 units. This should help reduce the number of vehicles parked on the roads.
- The developer will hold a public information session about the townhomes. A memo will be sent to those who would like to attend. The location of the info session will most likely be at the Korean church, on 176 St, in their meeting room.
- 160 St/106A Ave – There is talk of putting in an intersection at this site. When Ruby Hill was being developed, we were assured 106 Ave would not go through to 160 St and now the developers want to put 106A through to 160 St. This is already a very busy location due to the high school, pedestrian light, the Rec Centre entrance off 160 and steady traffic on 160 St. Due to 160 being a 2 lane street, there is no room to put a left turn into the Rec Centre lot (when heading south) nor to put a left turn lane (when heading north) onto 106A Ave. Traffic would become backed up from left turners trying to get into that area. The road curves just south of 106A which would make this a dangerous place to have an entrance/exit onto 160 St.
MLA Constituency report by Deanna Fasciani (email Deanna.Fasciani@leg.bc.ca) – constituency assistant for Garry Begg:
- Gary was unable to make it to the meeting tonight
- Can book appointments in advance with him by emailing him at begg.mla@leg.bc.ca or by calling his office at 604-586-3747. Constituency office is at #201 15135 101 Ave (in the lot where Wendy’s is)
- Office – advocacy for constituents and outreach, plus can help connect you to provincial services
- Events planned by Garry’s office have been outreach focused for the past few months and the following are events that are planned:
- Volunteer appreciation party (by invitation only for those who have volunteered over past year), – Friday Sept 21, 6 p.m. (most volunteers are high school students and seniors).
- Mingle – Sept 27 from 4 to 5:30 this is a volunteer orientation for new volunteers – it will be at constituency office
- Barbeque – Sat Sept 29 at Erma Stephenson from 12 to 2. Bring your own chair or blanket since seating is limited. Vegetarian and meat options will be available – free to constituents
- Pumpkin decorating event on Wed Oct 10 from 4 to 6 at constituency office for children and families. There will be pumpkins available to decorate or bring your own.
- BC Summer Games participants – there will be a reception for athletes who competed in the winter and summer games on Fri Oct 12 from 6 to 7:30 at constituency office
- Provincial – Oct 11 BC budget consultation at the Sheraton Guildford (104 Ave) 9 to 5 p.m. email committee@leg.bc.ca for more information.
- Deanna brought a box of bound printed books for residents to take. Both books are full of excellent information and are available in several languages at the constituency office. –
- BC Seniors’ Guide
- Healthy Eating for Seniors.
- The BC Legislature will be back in session starting Oct 1. Garry will be available here one week in Oct and one week in Nov. He’s currently in Surrey and available to meet with anyone during the rest of September.
Traffic
- Golden Ears Connector
- GEC and CN intermodal, SFPR and 104 Ave intersection – there has been some prefill dumped in this area but progress appears to be at a stand still. This intersection is very dangerous for those cycling or walking to/from Surrey Bend Park
- 179 St intersection now has the lights hanging and bagged. The lights are supposed to be put into operation in the fall once the road work is completed.
Announcements
- Municipal election – advanced voting is at Guildford on Oct 6, 10, 11 and 13.
- There will be a meeting on Oct 4 with candidates. A questionnaire requiring 150 word answers was sent to city council on various issues. The information from the questionnaires will be available before the meeting If anyone wants to attend, let Ed MacIntosh know – he can be reached at directors@fhca.ca
- Election is Saturday Oct 20th 2018 (information available at surrey.ca/election, email election@surrey.ca or phone 604-591-4389.
- Some opinions were voiced regarding current City Council and whether we had been well-served with developments such as High Crest and the massive development at Parkview Place, in particular with the retention of foliage and the emphasis on livability. It requires much effort on behalf of the community to keep the density to what has been proposed on neighbourhood plans. We all have to determine if incumbents running for council are shaping the community in a fashion that serves us well.
- Examples of other communities that have had densification and retained foliage and livability were described, including Redmond Washington. In Surrey, developers strip the land of all vegetation. With current property prices, it would be a small increment in pricing to ensure we retain the foliage and livability element of our community.
- We used to be called “Surrey, the city of Parks” but that no longer is the case.
- Residents should elect council who will shape a long-term vision of our community in a fashion to retain the look and feel of the neighbourhood.
Candidates that attended our meeting were Laurie Guerra, Brenda Locke and Steven Pettigrew. They are all running with Doug McCallum on the Safe Surrey Coalition team. Their platform included 3 pillars they all agreed with:
- Skytrain instead of LRT
- Surrey Police force – RCMP are understaffed. Local police would be integrated into RCMP and the building at Green Timbres will remain. There is a retired RCMP veteran on team. Many RCMP officers would be interested in staying in Surrey on a City police force. There are lots of cost issues to consider such as City police are paid more, they operate with 2 officers per car and their pensions would have to be costed out.
- Smart/smarter Development – look at what our communities will look like both for traffic and development in 10 to 15 years from now. We need to have policies and procedures in place and not fast track development as the current council has been doing. The City has grown too fast for the existing infrastructure
- Laurie Guerra has lived in Surrey 27 years and most of it in FH
- Brenda Locke has lived in the Tynehead area of Surrey for 38 years. She was an MLA from 2001 to 2005. She ran independently in the last election and is interested in looking into the Ward system.
- Steven Pettigrew lives in Guildford. He has been a Block Watch captain, on his strata council and he teaches computer programming. He was one of the leaders involved with trying to save Hawthorne Park. He wants to insure parks are given full protection of the law so they aren’t destroyed for development/roads.
- The Safe Surrey Coalition has a full slate/team (other members are Doug Elford, Jack Hundial, Mandeep Nagra, Allison Patton, Bableen Rana)
- Voters can vote for 8 council members, 6 trustees and 1 mayor
- Safesurreycoalition2018 is the Facebook page for their team. You can view an article about Skytrain/LRT on that site.
Meetings for the 2018/2019 school year:
September 19, 2018
January 30, 2019
May 8, 2019