Imagine Surrey: Urban Planning for our New Downtown

On Saturday afternoon, the City Centre Public Library hosted Imagine Surrey – a public forum designed to discover a liveable and sustainable downtown Surrey and discuss the City’s developments.  City and urban experts spoke about downtown development projects, rapid transit, the new City Hall,  and urban renewal in our city. The guest speakers of the day were: Gordon Price, Director of the City Program at SFU; Aubrey Kelly from the Surrey City Development Corporation; Don Luymes, Manager Community Planning Division for the City of Surrey; and Michael McDonald from Kasian Architecture.

Upon entering the library, we were greeted by the Imagine Surrey registration desk where they invited us to create a name tag and introduced us to the “Saying Hi” program. The purpose of the ‘Saying Hi’ program is to create connections by simply saying hello to someone you don’t know. I really enjoyed exchanging hellos with some new people – it’s amazing how a  friendly hello can lift the spirit.

Gordon Price speaks about Surrey’s urban renewal

There was also a number of community groups and businesses with information booths set up in the main floor of the library lobby. Visitors checked out local grassroots and volunteer organizations, to the latest information on city developments and expansion. Photo renderings and models of a number of Surrey projects were also on display. This family friendly afternoon also included a lego challenge for the kids.

 Village Surrey transition initiative information booth

Model display of the Surrey Memorial Hospital expansion project

Looking through the #imaginesurrey tweets throughout the day, there was definitely a lot of excitement, concern and discussion around the future of Surrey’s new downtown. We look forward to an ongoing exchange of ideas and information as we experience this major transition in our City.

Aubrey Kelly discusses the plans for Surrey’s new downtown as construction happens next door

Thank you to the City Centre Library, volunteers, the guest speakers and the community organizations/businesses who made this event possible and informative.

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