Definition:

The expansion, protection, enhancement, and ultimate connection of existing and future green spaces in the city for access to both people and nature.

Background:

Green Spaces ties quite deeply into Surrey’s long standing problem of “development at any cost” reputation. It’s quite clear to any Surrey resident that this is a huge problem, as we watch the creeks get piped up, the forests get chopped down, and find animals lying dead on the roadside.

One night walking home around midnight, I spotted a pack of coyotes meandering across the street into private yards. It’s no wonder pets die from wild animals - we have robbed them of their habitats and forced them to either live in tiny parks or attempt to make home in urban areas. Preserving green spaces for these animals will not only improve their lives, but our lifestyles as well.

In addition, there is evidence that humans with a greater connection to nature will enjoy less stress and have a general improved wellbeing than those who don’t. Surrey residents need increased access to doses of “Vitamin Green”.

The tree bylaw is not enough. Council must make drastic moves *now* to secure important green spaces before the city is fully built out. This Green Spaces pillar goes leaps and bounds farther than any current land policy in Surrey, with the ultimate goal of achieving a prime balance between preserving our natural areas, while still allowing sustainable developments to take place.

1. Nature Network Strategy

This is the major initiative of the Green Spaces pillar. Working with staff and citizens, council needs to develop a plan of strategic green spaces that should be secured throughout the years, for the benefit of both residents and nature.

This strategy should be based around the goal of establishing biotopes - continuous stretches of green space - thus, a nature network. Just as you would expect there to be transportation corridors for human movement, nature needs corridors for safe animal and plant movement. Green spaces cannot be established as patchwork throughout a city.

In addition, these biotopes can be accessed for recreational use by citizens - for example, for cycling routes as laid out in the Transportation Options pillar.

The plan would be long term - 30 years or further. As the town centres build up around new transportation choices, as lined out in both the Transportation Options and Vibrant Communities pillars, some older suburban areas of the city should be strategically acquired and reclaimed by nature to connect or expand the “nature network”. The strategy will obviously take into account the size, location, and current usage of the land in it’s quest to lay out these strategic areas of green space.

A major goal that should be part of this strategy is an acceptable distance of access that all urban settlements should have from green spaces. For example, most major transit centres are “accessible” based on a radius of 800m - a standard acceptable walking distance. A similar number should be set out in this strategy. This goal could also take into account the density of the surrounding area, as a place like Downtown Vancouver would need more green spaces simply because there’s more people that would be sharing the space.

One perfect example of an area worth preserving is Stokes Pit (aka: Campbell Heights). The environmentally sensitive area is located in a natural biotope, surrounded on the west near Redwood Park and on the east by the nearby Campbell Valley Regional Park. It’s also already used by citizens as a recreation area, whether that’s through discovering nature or cycling the trails. Although the area has been zoned for industrial for decades, recent failure of Phase 1 construction is more than enough reason to immediately stop and rethink the plans. Not only has Phase 1 failed to mitigate the major environmental impacts it’s created, but the industrial developments have failed to yield acceptable job levels - not to mention Campbell Heights is in the far south east corner of the city, far from any residential areas. This type of development is the way of the past, and would most certainly be fought against by me. I fully support stopping Phase 2 and putting the long term future of the area to the citizens of Surrey through a referendum - the same process which initiated the long term preservation of two wonderful urban forests in Surrey: Green Timbers and Sunnyside Acres.

There should also be a defined timeline to accomplish the set out goals in the strategy. Potential sources of long term funding for strategic land acquisition could include a partnership with Metro Vancouver or increased DCCs (development cost charges). Any new taxpayer contribution is nil.

This strategy will give the City a long term plan to both reserve and acquire key parts of land throughout the years to ensure Surrey is truly a city in a sea of green.

2. Guaranteed funding for eco programs and associations

Surrey currently runs a number of innovative programs that help support the environment and foster citizenship in our communities. For example:

You’d think with so many programs and such wide citizen support, Surrey would be one of the greenest cities in Canada. Not quite so.

However, with some real council support via the Nature Network Strategy, the City will ensure it preserves our green spaces. But it is with a policy of guaranteed funding, that we can enable citizens and volunteers to have the resources they need to be stewards of these new and expanded green spaces. Because, frankly, without true citizen support, there’s no real point in strategically acquiring more green spaces in Surrey.

With that said, I propose that council have a memorandum of understanding that guaranteed funding will be written into the City’s next five annual budgets to continue to support these programs. In addition, any other citizens associations that prove they are helping to protect and enhance Surrey’s green spaces should be provided with some grant money from the City.