The concerns of business owners, workers, and residents in Campbell Heights were addressed by the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce Nov. 26.
The Chamber hosted an event for the East Surrey business community at Starline Windows and gave a “state of the neighbourhood” report. The Chamber conducted an extensive survey of businesses in Campbell Heights over the summer and presented their findings in an open forum.
Scott Wheatley, executive director of the Cloverdale Chamber—whose geographical area includes Campbell Heights—said the event brought together key stakeholders from both the government and Crown corporations. This included representatives from the City of Surrey and Translink.
Wheatley said he thought the event "went great.” He said there were so many people in attendance he had to move the event from a boardroom at Starline to a large open area, just to accommodate them.
He said the response from the public was very good and those presents represented a wide variety of businesses.
“It was a great cross section of businesses from the area,” he added. “It was a great conversation. And people were hanging around for a long time after.”
Wheatley noted the report was well-received, with many business owners and managers in agreement on the biggest issues and problems facing those living and/or working in Campbell Heights.
“Different people have different issues,” he explained. “Some people have security issues, some have problems with getting enough power or gas."
He said street racing is a big issue for some, but for others it’s not. Some businesses don’t want speed bumps around because it affects their trucks.
He also thought—through the combined efforts of the Chamber, business owners, and the city—that they’d solved the street racing problem outright.
“Unfortunately, it’s still a major issue,” Wheatley revealed. “The city originally threw in temporary speed bumps. Once that was discovered, then all of the sudden, (the street racers) figured out how to remove them and get them out of the way.”
He said some of the racing problems have disappeared when temporary speed bumps get replaced with permanent ones, but often the racers just move to other streets.
Mayor Brenda Locke attended the forum along with councillors Linda Annis and Mike Bose. There were other city reps there along with people from B.C. Hydro, Fortis, Translink, and a rep from the SPS.
“The city has been very proactive with what came out of the meeting,” Wheatley noted.
He said after going through the survey results, there was an opportunity for those present to ask questions and to have a post-forum discussion. He said there were several insightful things uncovered by the survey, but the thing that surprised him the most was the amount of crime that people don’t report to police.
Wheatley said another concern centred around the ongoing construction all over Campbell Heights. Many roads are being widened all at once, which is also jamming the streets with vehicles.
He said there is also concern for owners and employees of businesses near the 24th Avenue and 192nd Street intersection as a new high school will open on 24th Avenue next year. The Saint John Paul II Academy, located at 18230 24th Avenue, is set to open in September, 2025.
“There’s also a bunch of new neighbourhoods being proposed down there,” added Wheatley. “So there's concern about the traffic that will be generated.”
Wheatley said along with Locke, there were two other Surrey mayors at the event: Linda Hepner, in her role as MLA for Surrey-Serpentine River, and Doug McCallum, who arrived with Allison Patton.
“I had three Surrey mayors there,” he said. “(McCallum) asked a question and was interested in what was going on in Campbell Heights.
Wheatley said the main things to focus on for him coming out of the forum are crime and public transit issues.
“The two biggest sore points are also probably the easiest fixes,” he noted.
Wheatley explained that for the crime problem, it’s just a question of educating businesses on best practices and helping them be better prepared. For transit, he said it’s a continuous dialogue of listening to the needs of people living and working in Campbell Heights and then conveying those needs to Translink and lobbying for better service.
He said Translink has been very helpful as everyone tries to pivot as needs arise in what is a rapidly growing area.
“Translink did tweak the route a bit and that helped a lot.”
