Opposing the South Campbell Heights Proposal
I’d like to tell you about a special piece of land, a little over 600 acres in size, on the Surrey side of the Surrey/Langley border near 16th Avenue.
It’s an area known as South Campbell Heights and it sits just outside Surrey’s urban containment border (UCB), currently zoned as rural. Running through South Campbell Heights are the Little Campbell River and several of its tributaries. Together, they provide habitat to several species of fish, including the threatened Salish Sucker. The Salish Sucker is not alone, there are at least 13 species at risk confirmed to be present in South Campbell Heights (City of Surrey, 2015). While the area does not include any old growth forest, there are many large approximately 100-year-old trees - a rarity in developed parts of the Lower Mainland. What’s not rare in the Lower Mainland are threatened aquifers. South Campbell Heights just so happens to sit on top of the vulnerable Brookswood aquifer, known by the City of Surrey to be ‘highly vulnerable to contamination from surface sources and is nearing or at capacity to provide domestic water without decreasing the water table’ (City of Surrey, 2015). Clearly the area has great ecological importance. Further, the presence of a known archeological site gives it cultural, historical and archeological importance as well. In fact, the entirety of South Campbell Heights is considered to have ‘high archaeological potential due to the proximity of resources (Campbell River), the possibility of culturally modified tree encounters, a traditional use site, an archaeological site and established travel corridors through the area’ (City of Surrey, 2015).
I’m very concerned that the City of Surrey is proposing most of that same land be zoned for business employment.
The whole process began in September of 2014 when Surrey Council requested an environmental study (results of which are cited heavily above), a market demand assessment and engineering servicing studies be conducted in advance of a local area planning process for the South Campbell Heights area. In July 2017, the City of Surrey held an open house to receive feedback for the initial land use concept plan (Figure 1A). Under this first iteration, South Campbell Heights would have changed from all rural zoning to a mixture of conservation areas, business employment, special commercial/institutional, and special commercial/institutional/special residential zoning. Of all the new proposed land uses, the inclusion of business employment zoning received the most negative feedback from residents (Figure 2). Interesting then, that the updated land use concept plan, proposed by City of Surrey staff in July 2021, removed better-received land uses and expanded business employment to cover nearly all but the conserved areas (Figure 1B). At the municipal level, the City of Surrey has given the updated plan third reading. Before they can give fourth and final reading, the City of Surrey must succeed in getting an amendment made to Metro Vancouver’s Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) allowing for the expansion of Surrey’s UCB to include South Campbell Heights. Without that approval, the City of Surrey cannot proceed.
Figure 1. Proposed Land Use Concept for South Campbell Heights. A) As proposed in 2017/18 (City of Surrey, 2017). B) As proposed in 2021 (City of Surrey, 2021).
Figure 2. Feedback received from local residents in 2018 regarding the inclusion of employment zoning in South Campbell Heights (City of Surrey, 2017).
So, the question is, how can we get Metro Vancouver board to decline the City of Surrey’s plan for South Campbell Heights?
Notably, the Metro Vancouver Board rejected the City of Surrey’s first request in 2018 to expand Surrey’s UCB to include South Campbell Heights. The reasoning given at the time was that the proposal did not align with Metro Vancouver’s RGS (City of Surrey, 2021). The City of Surrey claims the updated plan better aligns with the RGS due to the removal of residential zoning and expansion of employment zoning (City of Surrey, 2021). However, the proposal still requires expansion of Surrey’s UCB into an area with little transit service and high ecological importance, putting it in direct conflict with nearly all RGS goals as far as I can tell, particularly Goal 1 to ‘create a compact urban area’ (Figure 3). Additionally, the lack of First Nations consultation, particularly with the Semiahmoo First Nation (Holmes, 2021), is concerning and does not follow Metro Vancouver’s RGS implementation framework which is meant to include coordination with First Nations. Coordination with First Nations seems particularly important in this case given the known archaeological site and historic travel routes within the area.
Figure 3. Expansion of Surrey’s UCB to include rural land in South Campbell Heights defies Goal 1 of Metro Vancouver's 2040 Regional Growth Strategy (among others).
And what does Township Council think of this proposal?
The City of Surrey’s proposal for South Campbell Heights hasn’t made them any friends in the Township of Langley. Langley Township Council voted in July to support staff in writing a letter to the City of Surrey expressing concern over the proposed changes, particularly in relation to the Brookswood Aquifer and reductions to the landscape buffer on the Surrey/Langley border (Holmes, 2021).
What’s more, the City of Surrey has already demonstrated, in the case of Stokes Pit, that it can not be trusted to responsibly develop around the Little Campbell River. The case is highlighted in a David Suzuki Foundation report titled High and Dry: An Investigation of Salmon-Habitat Destruction in British Columbia. As outlined in the report, expansion of an existing gravel pit (Stokes Pit) and land clearing to develop an industrial business-park complex resulted in active lowering of the Brookswood Aquifer water table and draining of a small lake known as Latimer Pond. One larger creek, a tributary to the Little Campbell River, was stripped of its riparian vegetation creating several points of entry for silt and sediment and a second, smaller stream was completely blocked off by dirt being used as a vehicle crossing. While silt barriers were erected in some areas, many collapsed or were buried by sediments that washed into the stream from surrounding cleared lands. After some back and forth with an investigator hired by the David Suzuki Foundation, a DFO official eventually acknowledged, ‘…it is clear that there were and are problems with the site…’ (David Suzuki Foundation, 2007).
Better solutions for creating more industrial building space exist! Here’s a local example I found.
Instead of allowing what remains of our agricultural and forested lands (like the ones in South Campbell Heights) to be developed and degraded, the City of Surrey and Metro Vancouver should be supporting intensification and densification of existing industrial land. One way to densify is to go multi-level, like in the case of the Riverbend Business Park in Burnaby – a multi-level industrial building with loading on both levels (Figure 4). To make projects like the Riverbend a reality all over the Lower Mainland, we need government programs, updated zoning, and updated bylaws that incentivize and support industrial intensification and densification.
Figure 4. Riverbend Industrial Park in Burnaby - a multi-level industrial building with loading on both levels (Aderneck, et al., 2020).
Will you join me in voicing opposition to the South Campbell Heights proposal?
The South Campbell Heights proposal is scheduled to go before the Metro Vancouver Board on October 29th, with a final decision expected in early 2022 (McElroy, 2021).
If, like me, you find yourself in opposition to the South Campbell Heights proposal, I ask that you contact all Metro Vancouver Board members. For those living in the Township of Langley, it is particularly important to contact members Councillor Kim Richter and Mayor Jack Froese. Alarmingly, Mayor Froese did not vote to oppose the proposal at the Metro Vancouver Planning Committee stage. So make sure your voice is heard before the October 29th meeting. You can also sign up to receive email updates to help you stay on top of this issue.
The Metro Vancouver Board made the right decision in 2018.
Let’s encourage them to make the right decision again.
References
Aderneck, Eric and Berry, Beth. 2020. Metro Vancouver Industrial Lands Densification. Metro Vancouver. [Online] October 8, 2020. http://www.metrovancouver.org/services/regional-planning/PlanningPublications/Industrial_Lands_Webinar_Oct_8_2020.pdf.
City of Surrey. 2021. City of Surrey. Corporate Reports. [Online] July 12, 2021. https://www.surrey.ca/sites/default/files/corporate-reports/CR_2021-R147.pdf.
—. 2015. Corporate Reports. City of Surrey. [Online] June 29, 2015. https://www.surrey.ca/sites/default/files/corporate-reports/RPT_2015-R141.pdf.
—. 2017. Corporate Reports. City of Surrey. [Online] July 20, 2017. https://www.surrey.ca/sites/default/files/corporate-reports/RPT_2017-R171.pdf.
David Suzuki Foundation. 2007. High and Dry: An Investigation of Salmon-Habitat Destruction in British Columbia. David Suzuki Foundation Science and Learning Centre. [Online] January 2007. https://davidsuzuki.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/high-and-dry-investigation-of-salmon-habitat-destruction-british-columbia.pdf.
Holmes, Tracy. 2021. Metro Vancouver committee moves South Campbell Heights plan forward. Peace Arch News. [Online] October 8, 2021. https://www.peacearchnews.com/news/metro-vancouver-committee-moves-south-campbell-heights-plan-forward/.
—. 2021. Surrey council moves South Campbell Heights plan forward. Aldergrove Star. [Online] July 27, 2021. https://www.aldergrovestar.com/news/surrey-council-moves-south-campbell-heights-plan-forward/.
McElroy, Justin. 2021. Surrey's pitch for industrial park in protected rural area moves one step closer. CBC News. [Online] October 9, 2021. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/campbell-heights-surrey-metro-vancouver-1.6206142.
