Community Feedback

A little while ago we asked our community to write in to the city and the developer about their concerns on the latest proposal, and the response so far has been great. People from all over the neighbourhood wrote passioned emails asking the city to deny any rezoning proposals from Porte on the Retreat Center Lands.

We wanted to share with you some of those emails:

"Porte has not taken into account the feedback from the community, and instead has proposed this trojan horse by adding a school that is all but private to a small sub-portion of the land, and simultaneously increasing the density of the proposal." Read More

"We find ourselves extremely lucky to have the home in the neighborhood that we do. However, this project as proposed does not strike a balance between maintaining the feel of the current neighborhood residents in conjunction with addressing the ever important housing challenges." Read More

"I am in contact of the immigrants families (majority speaks Chinese) in the neighbourhood and even though they are slower in response to the developer proposals, the consensus is they will be strongly opposing the development comes to public hearing." Read More

"The addition of increased density is insulting to the residents of the neighbourhood, as we have always given feedback to this developer that its previous proposals had too much density for this neighbourhood." Read More

"I would like the city to… Recognize that this land is a wildlife corridor and ranked 5th among all of surrey’s hub-to-hub corridors. Because of its ranking, the City should place a high priority on protecting it from development." Read More

"As the City Council considers all the issues and the negative impacts this proposed development will have on the Rosemary Heights area, we, and the community, remain hopeful that Council will act appropriately, and within the wishes of its constituents in this area, and deny the application." Read More

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We are urging the community to strongly voice your concerns by contacting the City (including the Mayor and Council), Porte Developments and their PR firm Brook Pooni. We ask that you also copy the RHCA on all correspondence so we can gather important statistics that we can use to support our opposition.

Your opposition emails can be sent to (copy and paste):

mayor@surrey.ca; TSGill@Surrey.ca; Vera.LeFranc@surrey.ca; BruceHayne@Surrey.ca; MMartin@surrey.ca; Mike.Starchuk@surrey.ca; HBSteele@Surrey.ca; JAVilleneuve@Surrey.ca; Dave.Woods@surrey.ca; planningdevelopment@surrey.ca; RHintsche@surrey.ca; wilson_shawn@surreyschools.ca; Stephanie.Cadieux.MLA@leg.bc.ca; hkamitakahara@surrey.ca; saverosemaryheights@gmail.com; spotter@brookpooni.com; Craig@porte.ca

Here is a simple example email. Feel free to use it in part or in full.

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To whom it may concern,

I am writing you today as a resident of the Rosemary Heights area, and would like to strongly voice my disagreement on the proposed development at 3690 and 3660 – 152 Street, which is the former Rosemary Heights Retreat Centre lands. The city’s infrastructure cannot support a housing development of this size and Porte, the developer, has done nothing to attempt to alleviate any of these problems. The major issues of concern are traffic, overcrowded schools, parking, and environmental (lack of parks, tree removal). Recently Porte representatives went door-to-door and distributed a flyer outlining a new updated proposal. I feel that this proposal is even worse than their previous proposal and does not address any of the community's concerns. I would like to point you to the following article written by the Rosemary Heights Community Association which accurately explains why this proposal is not in keeping with our community:

https://saverosemaryheights.netlify.com/portes-flyer-vs-the-facts

Thank you.

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Notes:

• If you have previously sent your objections to the City and time does not allow you to prepare another email, we ask that you re-forward your initial objections.
• If you prefer to send the letter in hard copy, that is equally as effective.
• Strata councils - please disseminate to all homeowners in your respective complexes.

We appreciate your action and your willingness to unify as a community to stop the re-zoning and future development of the Retreat Lands. Your voice matters and will make a difference when the decision time comes.