Surrey Updates

[officedweller]

From 1130:

Surrey will be home of Metro Vancouver's new jail
180-cell facility to be completed by 2013

Connie Thiessen SURREY (NEWS1130) |
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 10:42 am

SURREY (NEWS1130) - Surrey will be the home of Metro Vancouver's new jail. The facility was originally slated for Burnaby, but public outcry last spring forced the government to put the jail elsewhere and Surrey has now been chosen.

Solicitor General Kash Heed says Surrey is the best location for the 180-cell facility, which will be built adjacent to the existing pretrial centre, and connected by a tunnel to the local RCMP detachment and courthouse.

Construction of the new facility is expected to be completed by 2013.

and CKNW:

Surrey gets new Metro Vancouver jail

METRO VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980)
Dan Burritt | Email news tips to Dan
10/7/2009

CKNW news has confirmed Surrey has been chosen to house Metro Vancouver's new remand centre.

The new jail is expected to be an addition to Surrey's existing pre-trial centre.

Both that centre and Coquitlam's North Fraser pre-trial facility are overcrowded and the new jail is expected to relieve that.

Delta, Surrey and Vancouver had bid to get the jail. Solicitor General Kash Heed met with officials from the three cities last week and has said a decision would be made soon.

The province had to go back to the drawing board after plans to build the jail in Burnaby fell through earlier this year.

The new jail is expected to provide up to 200 jobs.

[SpongeG]

yah just saw it on the news - they said the "old" city hall site in surrey

[officedweller]

Makes sense, the courthouse is right next door.

[SpongeG]

yesh but why did the news say "the old" has city hall moved already?

[mezzanine]

^^WRT bear creek park, i was just thinking about that = the SFPR should be able take a lot of load off 88th. If anything, a lot of truck traffic in surrey goes thru city streets b/c of a lack of east/west routes. 152 has improved a lot since 176th was upgraded.

WRT the pretrial centre - this is interesting news in that i'm sure there will be a political dividend for dianne watts and surrey from the province. more transit? a skytrain/LRT expansion? support for developing downtown surrey?

And corrigan has been more 🞵🞵🞵-like of late. he has slammed the provincial govt for delaying dredging of bby lake for a rowing centre in spite of dredging in the fall harming native turtles (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/22/bc-burnaby-lake-turtles.html), and he has gone on record supporting the 'drastic cuts' option for funding for translink (http://www.straight.com/article-260401/transit-gambit-condemned). if routes had to be cut, he bravely volunteered surey and south of fraser communities for the cuts. http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/62426372.html

karma, dave, karma.

[metroXpress]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

yah just saw it on the news - they said the "old" city hall site in surrey

that's a perfect location...

another article from CBC:

The B.C. government says the North Fraser pretrial centre in Port Coquitlam is overcrowded and a new jail closer to courthouses in Metro Vancouver is needed. (CBC)

Metro Vancouver's new remand centre will be built next to Surrey City Hall near the intersection of King George Highway and Highway 10, the provincial government announced on Wednesday morning.

The new 180-cell corrections facility will be connected by tunnel to both the adjacent provincial courthouse and the police station, which also share the the Municipal Centre site with an existing Remand Centre, said Solicitor General Kash Heed.

The Surrey location was selected by the government from a list of four possible sites identified by a committee of Metro Vancouver mayors, after Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan objected to a provincial proposal to build the new facility on the site of the former youth detention centre in Willingdon.

"I want to thank the Metro Vancouver mayors, especially [Surrey] Mayor Dianne Watts and her council, who came forward and volunteered locations in their communities, demonstrating their understanding of the necessity of getting gangsters and other dangerous criminals off our streets and behind bars," said Heed.

Construction of the new facility is expected to be completed by 2013 as part of a $185-million province-wide upgrade of correction facilities. The new remand facility will be used to hold people awaiting trial at courts in the Lower Mainland area.

The government has said the North Fraser pre-trial centre in Port Coquitlam is overcrowded and a new jail closer to courthouses in Metro Vancouver is needed.

Heed said the province plans to increase provincial prison capacity by 304 new cells, or a 19 per cent increase in order to house the increasing number of inmates brought in by a police crack down on organized crime.

There are some comments there that I suggest you take a brief look~

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbi...e-surrey-jail.html#socialcomments-submit

madmax1963 wroteosted 2009/10/07
at 7:37 PM ETIOC_Facist wrote:
Posted 2009/10/07
at 6:28 PM ETWe're dumping alot of our problems on Surrey. :/

**************************

The City of Surrey put in a bid along with other districts to have this built in their area.


DuncanF wroteosted 2009/10/07
at 7:30 PM ETI think this location is apropriate as most of the people in this jail will be from Surrey anyway.

[metroXpress]

Surrey city council wrestles again with idea of extending 84th Avenue
Ted Colley, Surrey Now
Published: Thursday, September 16, 2009

SURREY - Surrey city council is once again set to wrestle with the idea of pushing 84th Avenue through the south end of Bear Creek Park to relieve traffic at 88th and King George Highway.

Council has been there before. The proposal was put to them in 2000 and again in 2007 and both times failed in the face of vocal public opposition. This time, however, could be different. Veteran Coun. Barbara Steele is studying staff reports, trying to make up her mind.

"I haven't supported it in the past. I'm still going over the plan, but I'm almost convinced it's time to change my vote." The intersection at 88th Avenue and King George Highway, Steele said, is near the top of the list of B.C.'s most dangerous. Extending 84th Avenue through to 140th Street, she thinks, would help alleviate the problem by drawing traffic away.

Coun. Marvin Hunt agreed. "We just have to get some traffic out of there. We have a huge bottleneck at 88th," Hunt said. He pointed out, as did Steele, that the road alignment for 84th runs along the southern boundary of the park, not through the park itself, and most of it is on the hydro right of way so fewer trees will be lost.

"You're not going to ruin the park," Hunt added. "It's already surrounded by roads so that argument doesn't hold water. It's time to get on with it." Mayor Dianne Watts is against the move. She favours fixing the intersection to the north by "reconfiguring" it. Suggested changes to the 88th and King George crossroads include installing a roundabout or building a grade-separated interchange there.

Staff rejected both as being too expensive and impractical, but Watts isn't convinced. "There's not enough money to do this, a roundabout for example , but all you're going to do is create another potentially dangerous intersection at 84th."

Council will vote on the question at its Oct. 6 meeting.

[email protected]

http://www2.canada.com/surreynow/news/story.html?id=e32bfe12-1ed7-4a64-83bf-5d898b1f9fc8

[Whalleyboy]

umm thats old? why you posting it?

[PROSTSHOCKER]

Excuse me but I'm BLOWN AWAY by the huge controversy of expanding 84th across to the other side of the "park"



Notice how this beeeeeeauuuutiful section of the park has been cleared to allow the most pristine of all modern wonders, high tension powerlines, to run overhead and how the poor park will be split between the recreational and forested areas of the north and the beautifully skewed southern half with the oh so scenic residential sprawl taking up 2/3rds of the "other half of the park". But I mean, god forbid we build a bridge over a stream that has been bridged off everywhere else within view. It's not like it's a virgin part of nature we are talking about here.

But we can always extend 80th, right? RIGHT?

[vanman]

It may not be that huge of a deal if the connector was built but it would set a bad precedent.

[GMasterAres]

Originally Posted by Spork

Excellent news. It 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 that 84th has such potential for a major through-road. It is amazing that there isn't a major road for 16 blocks (Surrey-sized) south of 88th! No wonder it is so busy. The next best option involves a massive expropriation to extend 80th ave, but that would cost tens of millions.

It also would be quite pointless since it terminates at 140th street. You'd have to widen 80th to 140th, widen 140th between 72nd and 88th (well the rest of the way), and alter the intersection at 84th to get any good flow.

It's quite frankly stupid and I don't quite understand what the hubub was about with the 'Save Bear Creek Park' since 84th extension wouldn't have done anything but made that area more accessible. Oh well.

Other option would be to widen 88th to 3 lanes.

[GMasterAres]

Originally Posted by vanman

It may not be that huge of a deal if the connector was built but it would set a bad precedent.

A bad precedent for what? That section isn't technically part of the park actually. The only precedent it would set would be council not going with the opinions of residents in that area. I don't disagree with council's decision because they did what politicians do, side with those voting for them. But at the same time, I think the people against the 84th extension should wake up to the realities that they live less than 10 blocks away from the second downtown of the Lower Mainland under construction.

They can expect there will be some need for expansion, upgrades, infrastructure, and population growth in the area. And given what Holland Park looks like now after the 'upgrades', I think that part of Bear Creek could have been made to look absoultely amazing in the process of the road expansion. Right now, as the person said 2 above, it is just brown grass, power lines, and fences of houses. Nothing special.

Oh well. It will happen eventually. Council will instruct staff to look at alternatives, then they'll come back saying "We looked at alternatives and they will be 10 times the cost and 5 times more disruptive so we're making an executive decision and extending 84th".

I'd bet money on it. There's really no other alternative.

[Whalleyboy]

actually between 72 and 88th for the most part 140th is already wide enough to be 2 lanes. They'd just have to remove the on street parking. Theres also a couple bumped out for crossing but that could be fixed.
and as for the picture with 80th when it gets to the golf course it could easily just go around the water there thus not even touching it

[hollywoodnorth]

Originally Posted by jhausner

A bad precedent for what? That section isn't technically part of the park actually. The only precedent it would set would be council not going with the opinions of residents in that area. I don't disagree with council's decision because they did what politicians do, side with those voting for them. But at the same time, I think the people against the 84th extension should wake up to the realities that they live less than 10 blocks away from the second downtown of the Lower Mainland under construction.

They can expect there will be some need for expansion, upgrades, infrastructure, and population growth in the area. And given what Holland Park looks like now after the 'upgrades', I think that part of Bear Creek could have been made to look absoultely amazing in the process of the road expansion. Right now, as the person said 2 above, it is just brown grass, power lines, and fences of houses. Nothing special.

Oh well. It will happen eventually. Council will instruct staff to look at alternatives, then they'll come back saying "We looked at alternatives and they will be 10 times the cost and 5 times more disruptive so we're making an executive decision and extending 84th".

I'd bet money on it. There's really no other alternative.

ya I agree it will happen maybe some of it raised as a viaduct so all the "wildlife" and "users of the park" can have access to the "awesome souther part of the park"

I mean jesus its a joke....that part of the Park is Powerline and Brown Grass wasteland.......put the road through and beatify the park on the southern end and BOOM ...10x better than b4......

[metroXpress]

Originally Posted by Whalleyboy

umm thats old? why you posting it?

oops, grabbed the wrong article...


==============================
Anyways,

CENTRAL CITY EVOLUTION


OCT3,2009

JUNE18,2008


Central City has a 2010 banner wrap, D’Corize is completed, the City Points towers rise behind the SkyTrain station, and the street trees are fuller. All in just over a year!

civicsurrey.com

[REX]

The reasons put forth by the "resistance" not to extend the road through the "park" are ridicuous. Bridges over creeks, how are wood pilings to support the road and concrete any different then fallen trees or the rocks that line these creeks? I bet these bridges could have even been built so they wouldn't need supports going into the creek at all. Such a weak excuse, and people complaining about trees being cut down, have they even seen the route the road is taking? Minimal trees are being cut down. I honestly think people had no idea what this proposal entailed, just heard the propaganda by the resistance that a road was going through the park and joined them. Do they not realise options 2 is to widen 88th which just happens to be on the other side of park? Watch them complain about trees being cut down on that side now. I live close to 84th and 140th so this is a sore topic for me, but I honestly hope something gets done because traffic does get horrific at certain times on 88th.

[Metro-One]

Thats funny, because before today all I heard was the propaganda on the radio, and I had a completely different image of what the park would look like in my mind. Now that I see where they are talking about, i am laughing! Just build bridges over the creeks themselves, done.

[SpongeG]

i think the people on 84th are nmore concerned of their street getting busy than their concern for teh park - the park was a nice excuse for them to use

[vanman]

Originally Posted by jhausner

A bad precedent for what? That section isn't technically part of the park actually. The only precedent it would set would be council not going with the opinions of residents in that area. I don't disagree with council's decision because they did what politicians do, side with those voting for them. But at the same time, I think the people against the 84th extension should wake up to the realities that they live less than 10 blocks away from the second downtown of the Lower Mainland under construction.

They can expect there will be some need for expansion, upgrades, infrastructure, and population growth in the area. And given what Holland Park looks like now after the 'upgrades', I think that part of Bear Creek could have been made to look absoultely amazing in the process of the road expansion. Right now, as the person said 2 above, it is just brown grass, power lines, and fences of houses. Nothing special.

Oh well. It will happen eventually. Council will instruct staff to look at alternatives, then they'll come back saying "We looked at alternatives and they will be 10 times the cost and 5 times more disruptive so we're making an executive decision and extending 84th".

I'd bet money on it. There's really no other alternative.

I think paving parkland anywhere in Metro Van is setting a bad precedent. However the news made that area of the park out to be pristine wilderness, I should know better than to ever trust the news or think that it's unbiased.

[cabotp]

^ I agree once you've paved over one part of a park. There is the possibility of other parks being paved.

Like I said before I would actually leave the whole 88th 84th 80th etc corridors alone for now. And see what impact the SFPR has on them. I'd also ban truck traffic over a certain GVW from those streets as well. Force them onto the SFPR. My guess is the biggest problem with 88th/Nordel isn't the amount of traffic, but the kind of traffic. ie dump trucks and tractor trailers, which are slow to get going. Causing backups at lights because only so much traffic can get through.