SURREY - Residents in Clayton Heights are celebrating a small victory after being assured by the City of Surrey that parking will continue to be allowed for a portion of the construction project to widen 72nd Avenue.
According to the website Parkingforclayton.com, "huge pressure" from residents and a petition signed by 530 people in the area forced a compromise until at least June.Parallel parking will now be permitted on both sides of 72nd Avenue while the city widens a portion of 194A Street to add permanent parking to the area. The city plans to explore additional spots on 196th Street. But while many residents are pleased with the news, one resident is complaining there was no consultation process with homeowners."There's no notice from the city, just a special interest group has gone in there and muscled their way to get what they wanted," said Curtis Kreklau, who owns a home on 195th Street near 72A Avenue.Kreklau said he has to drive on 72nd to leave the neighbourhood for work and it's already jammed with traffic. He contends that maintaining the status quo will only make things worse. With cars constantly backing in and out of parking spaces during rush hour, he said the streets there are already "chaotic."According to Kreklau the parking problems in Clayton can be attributed to two problems: people using their garages for storage and then relying on the street for parking; and homeowners illegally renting out their basements and coach houses.As a result, "some of these houses probably have four to five cars per house and only three spots," he said.By allowing parking on both sides of the street, Kreklau is also concerned about the danger of residents constantly jaywalking to the other side, adding it's aesthetically ugly to have so many cars in the area.Coun. Bruce Hayne said the city is well aware of the problems of Clayton, but echoing comments made by fellow council member Tom Gill last month, he blamed a lack of transit service.Clayton was planned with nine-metrewide lots and high density in mind, anticipating a transit-oriented community. But with no reliable service, Hayne said virtually everybody who lives or commutes in Clayton needs wheels.However, Hayne said should the TransLink plebiscite pass in the spring, it would bring Light Rapid Transit to Surrey,with the second phase including a route along Fraser Highway with stops in Clayton."We have to address each of these issues over the long term," he said. "(But) in the short term we have to try and find extra parking spaces as we go."As a result, there will be temporary parking solutions during the widening of 72nd Avenue, including additional postconstruction spots.During the road-widening work Hayne said residents will be allowed to park in the construction zone during evenings and weekends after crews remove heavy machinery. The city will start on the south side of 72nd and then switch to the north, to minimize the impact to residents.There will be a one-month period in June while working on the median when there will be no parking on 72nd at all, but Hayne said by that point there should be additional parking created on other streets.Clayton residents were surprised to learn in late 2014 that the city planned to widen 72nd with little advance notice."We didn't anticipate having to do the widening quite yet but that is triggered by traffic volume," conceded Hayne.Surrey's Traffic Management Plan calls for four lanes once the volume of cars on a roadway approach 20,000 trips per day. According to Hayne, 72nd is currently seeing about 12,000 per day."It looks like over the past three years it's increasing about 1,000 cars (per day) a year in that area so we would anticipate not absolutely needing four lanes of width to handle the car volume for the next few years," said Hayne.In responding to comments about illegal suites in the area, Hayne acknowledged the problem and said council has made secondary suites in coach houses illegal but wouldn't promise bylaw enforcement would crack down. He said the area provides affordable housing to many Surrey residents, including single mothers and other at-risk segments of the population, and did not want to trigger a series of evictions.amacnair@thenownewspaper.com