Proposed Change to Urban Containment Boundary at Northeast Corner of 64th and 152nd in Surrey

Since I’ve been posting on the blog, I’ve highlighted changes to Metro Vancouver’s Urban Containment Boundary. In simple terms, the Urban Containment Boundary is meant to preserve rural areas. It also ensures, for the most part, that regional water and sewer services are only delivered within the Urban Containment Boundary. The Agricultural Land Reserve is meant to protect farmland, and removing land from it requires the permission of the provincial Agricultural Land Commission. Both rural and agricultural lands are outside of the Urban Containment Boundary.

Map of proposed regional land use change and expansion of Urban Growth Boundary at 6480 & 6456 152 Street

From a regional perspective, it is more cost-effective to deliver services such as water, sewer, and transit in compact urban areas.

To change the Urban Containment Boundary requires the support of the Metro Vancouver Regional District Board, of which Langley City is a member.

Recent examples of such changes to the Urban Containment Boundary are Gloucester Industrial Estates in the Township of Langley and South Campbell Heights in Surrey.

The City of Surrey submitted a request for the Regional District and its Board to start the process to have a portion (7.5 hectares) of a 10.2-hectare parcel of property at the northeast corner of 64th Avenue and 152nd Street change from the regional Agricultural land use designation to Employment land use. This allows all land uses except residential. There is a creek on the southern end of the property, which would be protected from development. To the north of the parcel are existing Employment land uses.

The Agricultural Land Commission removed this parcel of land from the Agricultural Land Reserve in 2016.

Because this is a significant change, it will require a two-thirds weighted vote (based on population) of the Metro Vancouver Regional District Board to change the land use and expand the Urban Containment Boundary.

Metro Vancouver staff are generally supportive of the change as the property is “well-serviced for goods movement, and is adjacent to arterial roads, transit service, and active transportation, supporting industrial and employment uses as well as visitor access.”

If approved, the proposal is to develop industrial buildings, commercial buildings, and a hotel and conference center on that parcel of land.

There is always extreme pressure to develop rural and agricultural lands. I personally worry about death by a 1,000 cuts with the Urban Containment Boundary because once rural lands are gone, they are gone. Are all Urban Containment Boundary expansions bad? No, but each proposal needs to be looked at carefully.