'Hold' on evictions a good thing, but past city decisions root of problems in Clayton

The lack of parking in East Clayton is due to the City of Surrey allowing coach houses to be built on small lots, on the same lots as adjacent homes which have plenty of room for a suite to be added. The city compounded its initial mistake in approving this type of development by sitting on its hands in regards to urban infrastructure. Clayton has no library, no recreation centre, very poor transit (with the exception of the 502 route on Fraser Highway), not enough schools and many other deficiencies which urbanized areas should not have to wait two or more decades for.

Whether it was due to detailed reporting, a meeting with representatives of the housing industry, or simply a change of heart, Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner has done the right thing in putting plans to evict tenants of 175 suites on hold.

Hepner said Oct. 16 that the city would be looking at additional options, and holding off enforcement of a letter sent to property owners in August, giving them six months to get rid of their tenants and illegal suites in East Clayton. The letters were sent because the city felt it was running out of options in dealing with the parking problem in that neighbourhood.

Residents aren't sitting back and applauding Hepner's ever-so-slight backdown. They are planning a rally at Surrey city hall on Sunday to get their point across - it is ridiculous to evict 175 families in mid-winter, just after Christmas, at a time of acute housing challenges. It is even more ludicrous to be doing so because of parking problems - problems which can be laid 100 per cent at the feet of the city, and on the councils which approved coach houses and homes with plenty of space for suites on tiny lots. At least six of the nine members of council, including Hepner, were enthusiastic backers of this type of development.

A Surrey Now-Leader series on the specific issues faced by individual tenants, which also ran online and in other area newspapers published by Black Press, received a great deal of attention. It personalized the problem faced by tenants, and put their faces and their stories out there.

While some readers were unsympathetic to their plight, most felt that the city needed to back off. This feeling was magnified by the great difficulty people are having in finding homes to live in. Vacancy rates are very low, and rents have been rising swiftly, due to both supply and demand issues and the ever-increasing cost of buying a home.

David Hutniak, the CEO of Landlord BC who recently met with Hepner, said that “The density model in Clayton Heights is the model for the future, so there is a certain irony that instead of focusing on housing Surrey families, we’re focusing on their cars.”

A commentary by University of B.C. professor Patrick Condon and a letter to the editor by Mike McLennan, the spokesman for a group of property owners who pushed for urbanization of East Clayton more than 20 years ago, have also added some interesting background information to this topic. Condon noted that the university was asked to help facilitate varying perspectives on development of the area, and McLennan stated that his group objected to the city’s approach to parking in its urbanization plan.

The resulting plan for East Clayton, which has often been credited as Condon’s work, came up with some innovative ideas that were brand-new for Surrey. These included making space for storefront home-based businesses, detention ponds which didn’t connect to the larger storm sewer system, legal suites and much smaller lots. As he said in his commentary, these homes were more affordable.

The plan assumed the extension of better transit services to the area. While a new community shuttle bus was added in Clayton last month, there is minimal internal transit within East Clayton. Most people need cars. The plan did not allow enough space for parking and some subsequent road improvements have taken away some of the parking spaces that did exist.

This sign on 72 Avenue indicates that some of the existing parking spaces in East Clayton will disappear in the future.

The plan, rather naively, also did not anticipate that many homeowners would add illegal second suites to their homes. Nor did it allow for the fact that homeowners themselves would often have more than two vehicles, or that many would use their garages for storage rather than vehicles.

In effect, what had been a rural area in eastern Surrey was built to a much higher density than had been expected. While many urban services such as shopping were quick to follow, public services such as schools, transit, libraries and community centres are still substandard or non-existent. The city has dealt with parking from an enforcement perspective, and has done little to actually try and find long-term solutions that work.

There needs to be a detailed look at how to provide more available parking in the area – whether that is through a permit system, use of space at schools and parks for overnight parking, some truck parking lots for people who bring their work vehicles home, or some other combination of solutions.

Surrey also needs to look at how best to legalize suites in East Clayton and other areas, and receive additional revenue which can be used to provide needed public services. It also needs to make better transit in East Clayton a much higher priority.

When was the last time anyone heard Hepner talk about transit in Clayton? With her, it seems to be all LRT, all the time - and nothing else.

I hope Sunday's rally is a great success, and urge people from all parts of Surrey to let their voices be heard. I also hope they will pay attention to this and other issues and make serious plans to vote in next fall's elections. It is long overdue that there be a wider variety of voices on city council - not nine people who, due to massive funding from developers, are all part of the same slate. Far too often, they merely parrot each other on important issues.