Surrey’s evolution into a major city is bringing with it a key roadblock to building businesses: parking fees.
Opposition to parking meters is atop the list of complaints the newly approved Newton Business Improvement Association (NBIA) wants to tackle.
Newton has 12 electronic pay stations that cover 137 Street and 72 and 71A avenues. Each station can service 10 to 15 parking spots.
Aman Braich, co-owner of the Pita Pit food store, said he’s been feeling the heat from customers who do not expect to have to pay for parking.
To make matters even worse, he said the pay stations don’t have enough signs near them to alert motorists to pay up.
Fifteen minutes of free parking is available to those who punch in their licence plate details, but Braich said few people know this.
“I would rather they not have it at all, but if they do have it there should be more signage or awareness on it.”
But the City of Surrey’s transportation manager, Jaime Boan, said he’s satisfied there’s adequate signage. He added that there have been no official complaints about the meters.
The city currently has 49 pay stations serving 479 parking stalls. Boan said more will be added early this year. The new stations will be placed largely around the Gateway and Scott Road SkyTrain stations and near King George SkyTrain station.
According to Boan, paid parking promotes a regular turnover of vehicles, which helps local businesses. It’s not, he said, a moneymaking venture for the city.
“We only charge a dollar an hour. Basically what we make is paying for the system,” he said.
The new stations are solar-powered and cost $9,000 each.
“As the city grows, parking demand increases,” Boan said, “and we need to manage our parking more.”
Linda McCabe, property manager for the Value Property Group, said paid street parking is a valid concern for local businesses, as is crime. Her Vancouver-based company manages several properties in Surrey, including the Centre of Newton mall and Newton Village. McCabe, who is also an NBIA representative, said the association plans to take the issue up with the city.
There are 184 property owners representing 152 properties and approximately 340 businesses in the Newton town centre area.
Surrey’s Newton Town Centre is ‘scary’, ‘sketchy’ and ‘depressed’
By Amy Reid/Surrey Now
Business owner pushes for higher-profile police presence to deter drug dealing, prostitution
Diane MacDermott has operated Beach Basket Giftware, across from the Newton Town Centre bus loop along 72nd Avenue, for 26 years but says she may close her doors as a result of the neighbourhood’s decline.
“We think it might be our last Christmas season here,” she said.
But things were great in the beginning.
“I have to say, probably the last eight years have been the worst,” MacDermott said. “I think that’s more so when Surrey’s made a definite change down in the Whalley area, and trying to reconfigure that. So we’ve had a lot of that life that they have down there flipped down here.”
MacDermott said the area is plagued by drug dealing, homelessness and prostitution.
“I was threatened by a fellow that this was his turf, and he was not going away. And two years before that I had called the police on him because he tried to attack me.”
MacDermott wants to see more police on the streets. Bike patrols used to ride through the area, which she said was helpful because people didn’t hear them coming.
“Even with the police station out back here, if they could just drive through when they’re going back to the office it makes a difference, because they do scatter when they see them and it deters them from coming around and hanging around.”
But she doesn’t want to see the problem just pushed around the city.
“Where are they going to go? That’s the problem. ... We don’t want them in our area but if we shuffle them off to another area, then they also have to deal with that themselves, too.”
Earlier this year, MacDermott opened a location in Guildford Town Centre.
“We thought that we weren’t getting the right mix here so, maybe, if we wanted to stay in Surrey, that would be the option for us,” she said.
And so far, so good.
“It’s a nice atmosphere, and people are positive. And we’re working with a much larger store there, so that’s been great. And my staff are really enjoying it, and they feel more secure there,” she said, which is not the case at the Newton store. She’s made the decision to close early at 6 p.m. because “it was getting a bit scary, a bit sketchy,” both for employees and customers.
She said some customers have told her they don’t feel safe and have indicated they don’t want to come back because of that.
“It’s just an area that’s depressed.”
