Forms to oppose Hawthorne Park road decision are now available

A large birthday party was just one of many events underway at Hawthorne Park on Saturday.
Frank Bucholtz photo


For those people who oppose Surrey council's decision to put a major road through Hawthorne Park, the forms which are part of the alternative approval process can now be obtained.
These forms need to be filled out and signed by those who are eligible to vote in a Surrey municipal election. That means they must be Canadian citizens, 18 years or older and have lived in Surrey for (at minimum) the past 30 days.
If more than 30,372 eligible voters fill out the forms and get them back to city hall by the deadline of Sept. 22, council will have a dilemma on its hands. It will have the choice of scrapping its plan for the road (which is part of its larger plan to build an LRT line along 104 Avenue) or putting its decision to rescind park protection bylaws relating to the park to a referendum. Neither choice is one that council members want to make.
A communication on Friday from Grant Rice, who is helping organize the process to get the forms filled out, states the following:
"Hi Folks,
I received a voicemail from Jane Sullivan, the city clerk, while I was out this afternoon saying that the package is ready for pick-up and online. Unfortunately I didn't get home before City Hall closing time. The form, is available online but it's not on the home page. Quelle surprise! Here is the link to the page https://www.surrey.ca/city-government/13723.aspx and the actual form. https://www.surrey.ca/bylawsandcouncillibrary/DCT_Alternative_Approval_Process_Elector_Response_Form_19337.pdf ." 
He went on to mention that Sullivan stated that the AAP packages would be available at city rec centres and libraries.
The group headed by Steve Pettigrew, which obtained 5,000 names on a petition against having the road go through the park, has said they plan to fan out in the community and get at least 35,000 forms filled out. That will be a massive undertaking in August, when many people are away or are simply not paying attention to local neighbourhood or other political issues.
As it happened, we were at Hawthorne Park on Saturday for the summer picnic of the Sierra Leone Association of B.C. The park is a very busy place. While we were there, there was a large birthday party underway, a gathering of Karen (a Burmese ethnic group) people for a traditional wrist tying event, a large gathering of Asian people (possibly a church or community group) engaged in many unusual games, and numerous other family picnics.
A traditional Karen wrist tying ceremony took place at Hawthorne Park, in North Surrey (between Whalley and Guildford, just north of 104 Avenue) on Saturday.
Frank Bucholtz photo

The people who were there enjoying the beautiful park are a reflection of Surrey's significant multicultural makeup, and it was great to see children of all sorts of ethnic backgrounds, skin colours, religions and other human differences playing together happily at the playground and enjoying the water park on a hot day.
Organizers of the AAP campaign may want to visit the park each weekend to let those who use it what the city has in mind. I suspect they will get plenty of interest and find many people wanting to sign the forms. As mentioned above, those signing the forms must be eligible to vote in a Surrey civic election in order for the form to be valid.
It will be very interesting to see how successful organizers are at gathering the forms. I wish them well - Surrey has no business sacrificing scarce park land in a city which is going to grow much larger. Nowhere is this more true than in North Surrey. It doesn't matter what the land use will be.
For those wanting more background on Surrey council's decision, see this Now Leader article or my previous blog post. 
 

Comments

  1. Unknown9 August 2017 at 13:40

    Hawthorne....now, even though it had by-law "reserved for park purposes"....next Godwin Bio-diversity, newly gifted to Surrey residents, carrying the clause "once adopted, the Bylaw can only be rescinded through referendum or alternative approval process. AAP was our loss in Bonnie Schrenk Park!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown30 August 2017 at 20:45

    Those involved in the AAP are there every weekend but can't possibly be there all of the time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown30 August 2017 at 20:47

      Oh and by the way the city says it is under utilized. savesurreyparks.ca to find Elector Response Forms.

      Delete

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