Surrey development OK’d despite school capacity concerns
Surrey council has voted to move forward with a proposed development expected to bring almost 100 new students to a neighbourhood where schools are already over capacity.
Hub Engineering Inc. has proposed building 131 homes on a 6.5-hectare lot made up of 14 parcels located in the southern portion of the West Clayton neighbourhood — the largest land assembly under application to date in the area, according to a city planning report.
The development fits with the West Clayton Neighbourhood Concept Plan, the engineering and parks departments have no objections, and the Cloverdale Community Association supports the application.
However, when it comes to how the development will affect the area’s jam-packed schools, concerns emerge.
“I’m not against development — I believe in development,” said Cindy Dalglish, an education advocate with Surrey Students Now, before the public hearing Monday night. “At the end of the day, there’s just nowhere for those children to go to school.”
According to projections from the Surrey School District, the proposed development will result in 66 new elementary students and 33 new high school students.
A document with comments from the district states enrolment in the Clayton area exceeds the capacity of all area elementary and secondary schools, and enrolment is projected to grow significantly. Clayton elementary was 81 students over capacity in September 2015. This year, the school could not accommodate new portables, so a large section of its catchment was moved to Hazelgrove, which is already full.
“Until new elementary and secondary space is complete in Clayton, the schools in this area remain under significant enrolment pressure,” the district said in its report.
The new 1,500-student Salish Secondary School, under construction, is expected to open in September 2018. The district has also received capital project approval for a 605-student elementary school in Clayton North, construction of which will begin next year and be completed in 2019. The district has also requested capital approval for a second elementary school.
Project representative Mike Kompter said if approved, the project won’t be ready for residents to move in until 2019 — after the new high school is expected to be built, and the same year the new elementary school is to be completed.
But Dalglish said the elementary school in Clayton North is already going to be at capacity when it opens. She also disputed another speaker’s statement Salish Secondary will be below capacity in 2019.
Dalglish said a better option would be to wait until schools are built — or at least announced — before allowing more development.
Dalglish expressed disappointment at council’s decision to approve the rezoning and allow the subdivision of the land, but said it was one she expected.
The school district hasn’t expressed any specific concerns with the West Clayton project, however in April, the board of trustees voted 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 provincial capital funding to support the many new students moving into these regions.”