Surrey City Centre Plan
Core idea
SkyTrain hub downtown
Why it matters
Polycentric Metro Vancouver growth
Description
The Surrey City Centre Plan of 2017 is the City of Surrey's framework for transforming the area around its SkyTrain stations into a high-density downtown for the fast-growing municipality south of the Fraser River. It concentrates towers, civic institutions, a new city hall precinct, university facilities and public spaces around the King George and Surrey Central stations, converting a car-oriented suburban centre into a walkable core. The plan is aligned with Metro Vancouver's regional growth strategy of channelling development into designated urban centres.
Significance
The plan exemplifies the deliberate construction of a second metropolitan core within a polycentric region, a strategy Metro Vancouver has pursued more consistently than most North American regions. It is significant in debates on suburban retrofitting, showing how transit investment and civic anchors can be used to grow a downtown almost from scratch in postwar suburbia.
What shaped it
- Transit-oriented development (TOD) (1993)
- The metro / underground railway (1863)
- The Transit Metropolis (Cervero) (1998)
- The compact city (1973-1990s)
Sources
- https://www.surrey.ca/renovating-building-development/land-planning-development/land-use-plannin
- https://surreycitycentre.ca/