Proposed road slicing Surrey park draws ire

Surrey city council moved one step closer toward the construction of a new east-west connector road that would bisect a popular park.

On Monday, councillors voted to repeal a 30-year-old bylaw that protects portions of Hawthorne Park in order to move forward with the 105 Avenue corridor project, a two-lane road between Whalley Boulevard and 150th Street.

The decision prompted jeers and calls of “shame” from opponents who insist the proposed road would damage ecologically sensitive areas and wildlife habitat.

“I’m disgusted with our city council,” said Tracie Woodhams of Save Hawthorne Park after the meeting. “They’re destroying a part of my city to make way for a road. We don’t need it.”

The project would remove 1.6 hectares of park land and 250 trees from the 22-hectare park, but that loss would be offset by additional land from adjacent properties, said city staff, resulting in a net gain of 0.4 hectares and 200 new trees.

But the replacement doesn’t justify the loss of green space, said Woodhams: “When it comes right down to it, we have so little dedicated park land, and they’re taking more out to build a road.”

Engineering staff told council the 1979 bylaw, which protects six parcels of land in Hawthorne Park, prevents the city from putting in a road or utilities through the 105 Avenue corridor.

Woodhams said the project is directly related to the city’s desire to build a light-rail line on 104 Avenue. The decision on the 105 Avenue corridor project is expected later in the fall.

According to an engineering department report, there has been a desire for an east-west “collector road” — one that connects residential streets to arterial routes — between Whalley and Guildford since the early 1980s.

The project would remove the 142 Street connection between 104 Avenue and 105 Avenue. It would also improve access to the park, and include the construction of a new walking trail and wildlife crossings, said the report.