Green Infrastructure in the City of Surrey: Building on a Decade of Experience
Getting It Built Right
The City of Surrey hosted the Metro Vancouver Water Balance Model Forum on March 12, 2009. This learning event was co-sponsored by the Water Balance Model Inter-Governmental Partnership and the Green Infrastructure Partnership. To learn more about the program content, click on Living Water Smart and Making Green Choices in the Metro Vancouver Region.
The Forum program was built around the HOW question as it pertains to green infrastructure: HOW will the City of Surrey ensure it gets built right; HOW will a consistent regional approach be achieved in Metro Vancouver?
Forum Program – An Overview
The focus of the morning session was on the nuts-and-bolts of Surrey green infrastructure projects.“First, we described the evolution of drainage planning in Surrey (Module 1). We 
also introduced the key neighbourhoods that embody the Surrey sustainability vision,” explains Remi Dubé Manager of Drainage Planning.
“After that, we reflected on the lessons learned on the ground in the East Clayton Sustainable Community (Module 2). Finally, we shared and reflected on the Grandview Heights and South Newton experiences (Module 3).”
Opportunities for Law and Policy to Effect Changes on the Ground
“Module 3 was conducted as a town hall sharing session about the design and 
construction aspects of green infrastructure implementation. This set the stage for Module 5 in the afternoon when we explored how policy and legal tools can help regulators, developers and designers collaborate to ensure responsible outcomes,” adds Vincent Lalonde, the City of Surrey’s General Manager, Engineering.
“What we wanted the town hall sharing session in Module 5 to draw out is that there are solutions to be found, if the different parties/ departments/ local governments and regions simply talk to each other about how they could all work together more effectively, using law reform or other process changes as tools,” states Susan Rutherford, who represents West Coast Environmental Law on the Green Infrastructure Partnership Steering Committee.
For more on this aspect of the Forum, click on Making Green Choices: Opportunities for Law and Policy to Effect Changes on the Ground.
Building on a Decade of Experience
“Looking back, it is sometimes hard to believe that more than a decade has passed since the City initiated the East Clayton plan”, reflects Paul Ham, Past-Chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership and retired General Manager, City of Surrey Engineering. “With the passage of time, we tend to take the early innovation for granted.”
“Three provincial initiatives had an early influence on City of Surrey thinking. These were the UniverCity Sustainable Community on Burnaby Mountain, the Provincial Guidebook for stormwater planning, and the experience of the City of Chilliwack when it developed its Manual for Surface Water Management as a feedback loop for Guidebook development.”
“The early results from East Clayton combined with the on-the-ground experience of Chilliwack gave Surrey the confidence to implement new Low Impact Development (LID) objectives in two plans – the Campbell Heights Economic Development Plan (1999-2000), and the Highway 99 Corridor Land Use Plan (2002). In fact, Council made the use of LID practices a condition of both plans”, explains Ham.
For more on this story, click on Green Infrastructure in the City of Surrey: “Getting it built right”.
Posted February 2009