Conceptual Rendering of Surrey City Centre in 2040

A landmark decision was made tonight as Surrey City Council gave final adoption to the new City Centre Plan. The plan, which has been under development for the past 10 years, is a major revision and update to the first City Centre Plan adopted back in 1991. Its aim is to redefine the vision and help better establish and reinforce a desirable development pattern for Surrey’s downtown. The 500-page document is full of visionary guidelines, objectives, and plans for the area, which will guide development over the next 30 years.

Below are some of the highlights:

“The goal of the Surrey City Centre Plan is to help develop and support a regional downtown that is the main business, cultural and activity centre for the City of Surrey. It is anticipated that the existing City Centre population of 32,000 will more than double by 2033 to approximately 68,000 people and the number of jobs will increase from 24,000 to 32,000 over the next 10 years.” The population of Surrey as a whole is expected to grow from 550,000 today to over 800,000 within 30 years to become the largest city in BC.

“Surrey’s City Centre is undergoing a major transformation from a suburban centre into a walkable high density, transit oriented downtown for South of the Fraser. Surrey City Centre is envisioned to be the Fraser Valley’s metropolitan centre, connected to major regional destinations by rapid transit and an efficient road network designed to support walking, cycling, and transit. It will be a centre for major employment; services; higher density housing; and commercial, cultural, entertainment, and institutional activity. Surrey City Centre is also designated as Metro Vancouver’s second metropolitan centre in the 2040 Regional Growth Strategy.”

“Distinct and vibrant neighbourhoods, including a dynamic and innovative business sector, university, hospital, and civic and historic districts, will form the framework of the City Centre. Each of these areas will have its own unique character that together will create a diverse, authentic, and interesting downtown.”

Artistic rendering of Surrey Central Station and a pedestrianized City Parkway with LRT

City Centre Neighbourhoods

• The City Centre Plan area has been organized into a number of distinct residential neighbourhoods and mixed use districts each with its own emerging identity, function, and scale. These sub areas help to create a focused, vibrant, and more urban downtown by defining and understanding the plan area through a smaller scale and framework.

1960’s Rickshaw Restaurant Sign at 10522 King George Blvd – Photo by Rebecca Bollwitt/Miss604

• A Mid-Century Historic District:
  • Building on the historic roots of the area, the vision for the Historic District is to support a pedestrian-oriented eclectic shopping experience with a continuous commercial and retail edge with pedestrian amenities. The historic, mid-century modern feel will be preserved and reinforced through small storefronts, building façade treatment and materials, public art, and signage.
  • New developments will incorporate the 1950’s character by using elements that reflect a mid-century modern design aesthetic. These elements include flat roof lines, vertically oriented windows, cantilevered overhangs, and clean and contemporary lines.

  • Preservation of mid-century heritage signs. If re-use of the sign is not possible, new developments should integrate the heritage sign into the redevelopment through an adaptive re-use approach.

Conceptual rendering of Surrey Central area – Existing and Future SFU buildings in red.

• Central Downtown:
  • A major transit hub will be located at the core of the district, building on the existing Surrey Central Exchange and SkyTrain station with the addition of light rail transit(LRT). The suburban style bus loop will be reconfigured into a new on-street transit exchange, as the bus layover and ice arenas are relocated away from the central core.
  • The presence of significant new university buildings will expand in the Central Downtown, creating a stronger campus identity and student energy at street level. Research buildings with large floor plates will have active retail street frontages and transparent storefronts to engage the pedestrian with the innovative internal uses.

• Central City Mall Redevelopment:
  • Over the longer term, the Central City Mall property will redevelop to create a site that has improved interface and connection to Holland Park as well as a broader range of mixed of uses. The retail uses in the parking lot areas along King George Boulevard will intensify and include office and residential components.
  • The interface along Holland Park will also be improved with redevelopment of the parkade structures into high density residential buildings and a redesign that creates direct connection through the mall site to Holland Park.

Greenways and Parks Network

PCI Development’s King George Hub project has officially sold out both residential towers within Phase B of the project. The 40-storey tower first went to market in October, quickly selling out, followed by the 29-storey tower in November. Phase B will also include a 15-storey office tower, 2-storey stand-alone restaurant, as well as over 100,000 sq.ft. of retail space integrated with a plaza.

According to the King George Hub Sales Team, over 12,000 people registered as interested purchasers for the 738 units. Given this unprecedented demand for a condo project in Surrey City Centre, units were allocated through a lottery system. Of those units sold:

• 697 were purchased by local residents
• 1 in 4 were first-time home buyers
• 65% of buyers currently live within 20km
• 30% of buyers currently live in Vancouver

With the success of King George Hub selling out so quickly, PCI developments has indicated that they are now moving forward with plans for Phase C of the project, which should include 1 additional residential tower to the east of the existing Coast Capital Savings headquarters. A future Phase D is set to follow that with space for up to 3 more towers, however detailed plans for both sites have yet to be finalized or released.

Plan showing King George Hub Phasing – Future phases C & D to the north and east of Phase B

With sales now complete, and final approval in place, it is expected that Phase B of King George Hub will begin construction by Spring 2018. This should be joined by Concord Pacific’s 42-storey Park Boulevard project just north of King George Station around the same time, making for 4 new towers starting construction within the area immediately surrounding King George Station. For more on King George Hub:

http://kinggeorgehub.com

Numerous community and business leaders joined Mayor Linda Hepner today to launch an 8-week LRT showcase, offering residents a first glimpse at Surrey’s future LRT. As part of the showcase, a prototype LRT train car has been brought in from Europe and put on display in the Central City parking lot next to King George Blvd. It will remain there for the next couple of weeks before being relocated to Newton Town Centre, Guildford Town Centre, and finally the Surrey Canada Day celebration in Cloverdale.

The goal of the showcase is to give residents a first-hand look at what the urban-style LRT train will look like. Unlike high-floor commuter-type LRT trains like those in Calgary and Edmonton, Surrey’s LRT will be low-floored, similar to those found in many cities throughout Europe, and even Toronto. Despite being more integrated with the urban environment, the trains will nonetheless run on a dedicated right-of-way, apart from traffic, offering significant improvement over a bus – not only in speed, but also through more consistent/reliable schedules, frequency, capacity, boarding doors, and comfort. It is important to point out that the particular train car brought in for display is just a prototype, and the actual trains chosen for the Surrey line, will likely look a bit different.

LRT was chosen as the mode of choice for rapid transit in Surrey following years of study that began as far back as 2010. Numerous options, and combinations were looked at including LRT, SkyTrain, and Bus Rapid Transit. The results found LRT to be the most cost effective system for Surrey – with 27km of LRT track (2 lines) able to be built for the same $2.2 billion price tag as 16km of SkyTrain (1 line). Surrey gets a more extensive rail transit network, better integrated with the community, creating more pedestrian-orientated streetscapes, with LRT. Further, operating costs for LRT were found to be $6 million cheaper annually, with negligible differences in travel times.

Vancouver’s Prado Cafe is coming to 3 Civic Plaza this fall. Revealed today in a video produced by Surrey604 on the under-construction tower, the trendy coffee house/bakery is set to open their first location outside of Vancouver in a brand new space fronting Surrey’s new Civic Plaza. Prado Cafe is a well-rated, local chain serving freshly baked-in-store goods, 49th Parallel coffee, and lunch / brunch style food options. The chain’s other locations include Gastown, Commercial Drive, and Fraser Street in East Vancouver.

Prado Cafe will be a much welcomed addition to the Surrey Central area, and is a sure sign of the revitalization underway in the neighbourhood. It will offer locals and visitors a new independent option for fresh quality food and coffee.

http://www.pradocafevancouver.com