While the Skytrain “spine” is going to bring a lot of new people to Clayton Heights, Paul Orazietti said he hopes the city doesn’t forget about Cloverdale in the process.
Orazietti, the executive director of the Cloverdale BIA, said the Skytrain is transforming town centre/corridor plans at “breakneck speed” and this, while needed, must also include balance.
“A lot of it is catching the city off guard,” explained Orazietti. “Cloverdale urgently needs transit options like everyone else, but just because Skytrain comes through one part, the issues aren’t solved.”
He said there is no option for park-and-ride capacity with the new Skytrain stations.
“You’ll have to walk, take the bus, or get dropped off to take the Skytrain,” he noted. “So now we’re back to, ‘What is the SkyTrain being created for?’ And the answer is: it’s being created for people who want to use it as a spine for transportation.”
The SkyTrain doesn’t necessarily mean more transit for Cloverdale, he noted, adding the current density in Clayton doesn’t even justify Skytrain—only that it will come with time as more high-rises get built. But Cloverdale will still be left with only bus service up to the “spine.”
And the whole scenario, he said, still doesn’t solve any problems for Campbell Heights.
“They want to create the density,” he said. “Part of that planning is to split Cloverdale in two. So now the northern portion of Cloverdale will be incorporated into the Clayton corridor plan, which doesn’t even cover all of Clayton, just the areas surrounding the SkyTrain.”
He noted Clayton is now growing bigger than Cloverdale, because a third of Cloverdale is now part of the Clayton Corridor Plan.
Both Clayton and Cloverdale are about the same size. Clayton had traditionally been a farming area while Cloverdale had been the business centre.
The top part of Clayton is still Clayton, the lower part is now part of the Clayton Corridor Plan along with the top part of Cloverdale, and Cloverdale is on the bottom. He added with those changes Cloverdale gets marginalized at the city-planning level.
“So in doing all of that, that stops us from growing,” he added. “Because people in the planning department now go, ‘You’re like Fort Langley.’ But we are not. We’ve got close to 300 businesses. There’s only 50 on Fraser Highway.”
Orazietti doesn’t see a lot of new businesses coming there because most of stores are already established a short distance to the east in a Langley—a major shopping destinaion for people south of the Fraser River.
He thinks for growth to occur in the best way possible for Cloverdale and Clayton, citizens need to be involved. As such, he’s reaching out to the community.
“We’re trying to get more people to be engaged, to be involved in the future of their city,” said Orazietti. “If we work as a collective, then we can do more than people coming to me as an individual and urging me to act on their behalf for things on a case-by-case basis.”
He said if they work together, their collective voice can approach the city and still advocate for people who may not be affected by the new Clayton Corridor Plan and its prioritization. They need to do this in order to make sure Cloverdale is not forgotten as a massive growth is set to transform Surrey into the biggest city in the province in a decade or so.
He’s excited about the prospects of working with the city, the Cloverdale Community Association, the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce, and, of course, local citizens on these items. He said they can better tackle bigger projects together for the betterment of all.
“A lot of what we’re dealing with right now is so different, because we’re trying to retain our small town charm while allowing for the massive growth that’s coming, both with the SkyTrain up the road and the new hospital,” he added. “But it’s exciting because we have a lot of new things going on, including bringing new festivals to town. But we need to grow, we need to build, and we need to do it right.”