By a 5-to-4 vote, Surrey council has defeated a motion to pause development along the Fraser Highway where the SkyTrain will run for 10 months until a new land-use plan is developed.
The motion was put forward by Coun. Brenda Locke.
She thinks Surrey has already seen what happens when development outpaces infrastructure.
“I think it’s important that we have the opportunity to let the school board do the work they need to do,” she said. “I think it’s important we get all the other infrastructure pieces at least planned for along that corridor so with that I ask council to consider this motion.”
Mayor Doug McCallum led the charge against Locke’s motion.
“I think it goes completely against the intent of the last campaign which from my point of view a major pillar of our Smart Cities development was the fact we are going to densify along our corridors.”
Meanwhile, public consultation is underway on the Surrey/Langley SkyTrain with an open house scheduled for Tuesday at Surrey city hall.