‘No common sense’: Surrey family forced to build sidewalk, bike lane to ‘nowhere’

A Surrey family says city planning has “no common sense” after having to pay an estimated $120,000 to build a sidewalk and bike lane “to nowhere” on a property that isn’t currently being developed.

Family goes public: The Makar family, who own one acre at 8566 – 164 Street in Fleetwood, has even taken the extraordinary step of placing signs in front of their home and setting up a website – provocatively entitled surreymafia.ca – detailing the saga.

Why it matters: The case highlights how cities must enforce standards for all changes – even future ones – to properties versus if bureaucracies should judge each proposal on a case-by-case basis to ensure upgrades are really necessary for certain properties.

City forces changes: The Makar house is a small one that was built in 1958. The family’s quest was to downsize the overall property, with the family wanting to sell one half of it. But the City of Surrey said it needed to make multiple upgrades, including a sidewalk, curb, bike lane, drainage, telephone and cable system, and a new streetlight – at the family’s expense.

As the family points out, there is no sidewalk or bike lane on either side of their property along 164 Street, so both start and end at their property line, which means just a few steps for a pedestrian or five seconds of riding for a cyclist. That side of the street is just ditches for a long distance on either side of the property.

“It made no sense to me especially with open ditches on either side,” reads a post on the family’s website.

The family had to pay $11,500 just to move a sewer pipe because it had a dip in it.

Was land “stolen” by city? As part of the city’s demands, the family had to “dedicate” 1.9 metres of frontage for services. The family equates that to theft. The family also said it was premature because there wasn’t an actually development plan in place. They fear the changes will be ripped up in the future and replaced once the lot is developed.

“I felt like I was being extorted and this was the ransom I had to pay if I wanted city approval,” reads a post by the family. “I did not understand why I had to do this since my parent lot was not being developed at this time.”

City needs minimum standards: For the City of Surrey, when someone wants to subdivide a property and then make changes, now or in the future, it has standards that must be met, especially for older properties that have old services.

“All developments must meet City standards for sanitary sewer, storm water disposal, water supply, roads, sidewalks and street lighting. These services are provided at developer’s expense,” reads a post on the city’s website.

“The subdivider shall provide sidewalks on highways within the lands being subdivided in accordance with the set standards,” says a post from the city.

In this respect, Surrey is just like most, if not all, other cities in Canada. Upgrades are needed and developers, both big and small, are required to pay for them.