Frankly Speaking

Frank Bucholtz photo Plans for 136 new homes across the street from the new Clayton North secondary will be discussed at a public hearing held by Surrey council this month. The Clayton area has a severe shortage of classroom space for students. Surrey schools expect to have an extra 1,000 students in the classrooms when school began on Tuesday. As challenging as that is, even more challenges are coming. Development is continuing at a frenetic pace, despite a 15 per cent foreign buyer tax which seems to be addressed more towards Vancouver, the North Shore and Richmond. There are a number of signs of real estate activity slowing down in those markets, but many people continue to buy homes in Surrey for the simple reason that it is more affordable. If all the development proposals now in the planning stages go ahead, the school district will have several thousand more students in the next few years. Longtime trustee Laurae McNally points to a proposed development in Clayt...

Frank Bucholtz photo This development proposal sign went up on 184 Street, shortly after work began on a new high school for Clayton. The new school is expected to open in September, 2018. Fresh on the heels of Premier Christy Clark saying last week that there is no need for a “made in Surrey” solution to the severe overcrowding in some schools, the Surrey Board of Education has unanimously asked the city to stop approving development applications in three neighbourhoods. Grandview, Clayton and South Newton schools are all overcrowded, with portables used to house thousands of students. Meanwhile, the provincial government, which determines when new schools will be built, has been slow to approve new schools for Surrey. This led to the board agreeing unanimously on Thursday (April 21) to ask the city to “temporarily suspend all new development approvals in the Clayton. Grandview/South Surrey and South Newton regions until the Surrey School District receives adequate prov...