Surrey City Centre Redevelopment Plans

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by logicbomb

It's not about the people as it is about the upkeep.

The Quattro 1 & 2 building is perhaps one of the worst "newer" apartments I have checked out to date. The walls were cold to the touch in many spots on a 12 degree day and it was quite clear that insulation was improperly done. Lastly, the noise...there was no soundproofing and it was evident by all the talking you would hear upstairs. Basic fixtures are already in disrepair and some units require extensive work to flooring and cabinets.

Have you ever been in a wood building that has good sound insulation? I've never seen one myself but I'm sure they exist.

[Sheba]

Not all wood buildings are created equal. I bailed on one as you could hear all of your next door and upstairs neighbours. Where I am now I can only hear the neighbour directly above me. Blocking sound between floors seems to be a pretty common problem.

[CoryHolmes]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Not all wood buildings are created equal. I bailed on one as you could hear all of your next door and upstairs neighbours. Where I am now I can only hear the neighbour directly above me. Blocking sound between floors seems to be a pretty common problem.

It's an expensive problem, which is why developers will do the absolute bare minimum they have to. With property prices what they are already, I don't think many people would pay that much extra for something that they're not going to see.

I didn't really appreciate the difference between wood frame and concrete construction before I bought my highrise condo. Now I refuse to even consider a wood frame unit due to the noise issues.

[Shift]

Development signs are now up for the SFU expansion. I've heard excavation could start as soon as end of summer/early fall.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by CoryHolmes

It's an expensive problem, which is why developers will do the absolute bare minimum they have to. With property prices what they are already, I don't think many people would pay that much extra for something that they're not going to see.

I didn't really appreciate the difference between wood frame and concrete construction before I bought my highrise condo. Now I refuse to even consider a wood frame unit due to the noise issues.

There can't be that huge a difference between wood frame and concrete. You still build walls in wood frame the same way you would in a concrete building. There's also many layers of material between floors in a wood frame building, including a very thick layer of mineral wool and a thin layer of concrete.

[Shift]

This thread title should be changed to Surrey City Centre Updates

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Have you ever been in a wood building that has good sound insulation? I've never seen one myself but I'm sure they exist.

Mine is excellent (built 1975). I can only hear people if they yell really loud, and only faintly then.

That said I would never buy in a newer wood frame.

[w34lth]

LRT just got approved.

[Shift]

Originally Posted by w34lth

LRT just got approved.

Not quite.

http://www.thenownewspaper.com/news/383306851.html

[scryer]

Originally Posted by w34lth

LRT just got approved.

Uh no it didn't. Read again, boo.

The only thing that was confirmed was money being invested into better bus loops as far as I could tell. They still have to do the dual-business case with translink.

[Vin]

They can always opt for skytrain and build the extension in phases, depending on the different rollout stages of federal or other budgets they receive. The Surrey Memorial Hospital and business centre station can be the first stop, and after that the line can progress down King George Highway with added stations and services as they receive more funding over the next decade or so.

[Klazu]

Why is Skytrain such a difficult deal for Surrey? Most of the city is flat and elevated guideways are the cheapest way of building (vs. having to dig underground) if not counting on-ground which is suitable almost nowhere.

Also, if Hepner finally has to go in the next election, does that kill the LRT plans or is there a bigger support for it than just her? I am a bit out of touch with the Surrey politics on this...

[xd_1771]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Also, if Hepner finally has to go in the next election, does that kill the LRT plans or is there a bigger support for it than just her? I am a bit out of touch with the Surrey politics on this...

Unfortunately it's pretty widespread - the three big parties in the last election all ran on pro-LRT platforms.

Whether those parties are returning in the same form this year (and whether there will be any party that pushes for SkyTrain over LRT), we have yet to know.

Originally Posted by w34lth

LRT just got approved.

In terms of the final technology choice, although the Mayors' Council themselves have selected and are pushing for LRT, nothing's really "approved" at this time.

This is because we still haven't seen an LRT business case, which is a final pre-requisite for Phase II funding from the provincial and federal governments. It's been delayed several times now - the last deadline I heard of is the end of this month, but I was expecting it to be out by March 31st because that was the deadline set by P3 Canada for the P3 funding application sent by Surrey & TransLink (clearly P3 funding for this is out the window).

There is a considerable chance that the final LRT business case being put together right now will come out unworkable, because the Phase 2 analysis that IBI group did found that both the full LRT proposal and the "L Line" only (which was even worse) had poor benefit:cost ratios and a negative business case. Why do you think TransLink is still working on a SkyTrain alternative business case, even though the Mayors have always specified LRT in their vision and there was supposed to be no more need to study SkyTrain? I think they realize as well as we do that the final LRT business case is going to come out unworkable.

Trudeau has also said many times that the federal government will not "meddle" in transit technology decisions (whether in Vancouver or anywhere else in Canada). So the technology will certainly not be dictated/decided by the feds, although it's too early to say whether they will pull funding if LRT turns out to have an unworkable business case. The province is more likely to bring down the hammer on LRT if the final business case is unworkable - they're already showing agnosticism on the SoF rapid transit technology, and Todd Stone previously said that a positive business case was a requirement - I'm sure Peter Fassbender shares the same view.

[logicbomb]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Why is Skytrain such a difficult deal for Surrey? Most of the city is flat and elevated guideways are the cheapest way of building (vs. having to dig underground) if not counting on-ground which is suitable almost nowhere.

Also, if Hepner finally has to go in the next election, does that kill the LRT plans or is there a bigger support for it than just her? I am a bit out of touch with the Surrey politics on this...

Cause they are seeking to rapidly encourage development along the corridors and honestly no longer care about sustainable smart planning. Right now, they are pissing away hundreds of thousands of dollars to build quasi bike lanes beside barren tracts of land on 105th A Ave...

The Surrey Board of Trade, real estate stakeholders, and developers desperately want LRT and they want shovels to hit the dirt asap.

[xd_1771]

Originally Posted by logicbomb

Right now, they are pissing away hundreds of thousands of dollars to build quasi bike lanes beside barren tracts of land on 105th A Ave...

I reckon for a similar price you could've built a downtown Vancouver-style dedicated bike lane on 100th Avebetween 148th and 154th Streets, with the road running way modified to a single lane in each direction + turn lanes. The difference would be that 100th Ave, unlike 105A Ave, is actually being utilized as a cycling corridor (and I know this as a former cyclist on the route myself). The current segment between there right now has cyclists running in mixed traffic - it's saved only by the fact that the roadway isn't that busy and never really warranted its 4-lane construction in the first place, so it isn't too bad to travel on 100th as a cyclist but it's hardly the ideal setup.

Then again doing that sort of thing on 100th Ave would've spoiled the City's LRT plans, which would require 100th Ave to have 4 lanes across Green Timbers and through to 160th...

105A in City Centre, practically, is a poor place for a demonstration - logistically maybe not so much. I get the feeling that part of the reason they built it there is because it's easy to see it from passing SkyTrains. After all, if you want to showcase cycling investment, many people coming from the NoF are only willing to go so far into Surrey - they'd never see it if it was built at 100th in Guildford, no matter how much more useful that would've been...

[logicbomb]

Originally Posted by xd_1771

105A in City Centre, practically, is a poor place for a demonstration - logistically maybe not so much. I get the feeling that part of the reason they built it there is because it's easy to see it from passing SkyTrains. After all, if you want to showcase cycling investment, many people coming from the NoF are only willing to go so far into Surrey - they'd never see it if it was built at 100th in Guildford, no matter how much more useful that would've been...

They are building a fragmented network of cycling trails without even thinking about building storage facilities for cyclists. You'd reckon to think they would have included secure storage facilities near the skytrain, library, or new rec centers...but nope.

Worth noting that the the City of Surrey just transformed 154th in Fraser Heights into an expensive cycling trail. How much it cost? Well, it wasn't disclosed but it will be expensive to maintain.

[vincent114]

Who can tell me What the first stage of LRT is?

central - guildford mall?
central - newton?
central - langlay?

[Whalleyboy]

first stage would be the guildford to central and then on to newton. central to langley is the last stage

[Shift]

Preliminary renderings of the new SFU Building:






Temporary corner of 102A and University Dr:



Eventual corner with 102A re-alignment to go through the bus loop:




Site as of Jun 24. Initial phase will take up both parking lots with a future SFU residence tower where the house currently is.

[vanman]

Looks great. Hopefully the plans include preserving a few of those mature trees.