The Cloverdale Business Improvement Association will hold its Annual General Meeting one month from now.
The BIA will host the meeting Tuesday, Feb. 25 at Crossridge Church (the Clova Theatre).
Paul Orazietti, BIA executive director, said along with the usual AGM items, such as financial updates and other business, the city of Surrey will be on hand to give a presentation.
“We’re going to have the city come in and give a more up-to-date report on the town centre plan,” he noted.
Orazietti said the BIA board just sent a letter to the city supporting the city’s plans for an updated Cloverdale Town Centre Plan (TCP), but also asking the city to think big and to include plans to allow zoning changes in certain areas.
“We are on the same page, for the most part, with what they are doing in the plan,” he explained.
Orazietti said he wants that footprint for commercial zoning and "mixed-use" zoning (commercial with residential on top) extended into the eastern side of the downtown area, along areas on Highway 10, and up near the casino on the Cloverdale Fairgrounds.
“It would be more all along the Highway 10 corridor,” he explained. "So two-three blocks north of Highway 10.”
Orazietti also said it will be vital for future housing developments in the downtown core to be “mixed-use,” that is commercial and retail space at street level with housing above.
With the addition of the Cloverdale hospital and cancer centre, set to open in 2030, the large amount of housing developments going in, coupled with several new large commercial builds, the next TCP update will have to address major changes to Cloverdale.
The previous town centre plan was created in 2019, but was given a boundary extension in 2024 to accommodate the addition of the Cloverdale Fairgrounds.
Corporate Report R149, co-authored by Don Luymes, Planning & Development GM, Terry Waterhouse, Social Infrastructure and Community Investments GM, and Laurie Cavan, Parks and Rec. GM, noted the expansion would include, not only the Fairgrounds, but also residential and business properties between 175A and 176th Streets, between 60th and 64th Avenues. The update also adds a property on Highway 10, northeast of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, into the plan’s boundary to “support planning” for both KPU and the new Cloverdale hospital.
“The Cloverdale Town Centre Plan update will orient land uses, roads, and infrastructure to support the (Cloverdale hospital) and KPU campus expansion and support the creation of an entertainment district in Cloverdale,” the authors wrote. “The proposed boundary expansion will enable focused studies and analyses of sites within the plan area and will support future growth and development.”
The next incarnation of the TCP will have dramatic changes, Orazietti added. He said anyone who wants to come down to the AGM to see the city's presentation, even if not a member of the BIA, is more than welcome to attend.
“We’ve left it open” he said. “(Non-members) won’t be able to vote, but they can definitely come down and visit and see what’s going on.”
Orazietti said he already has a few non-members registered and he expects several more.
He added the Cloverdale BIA is working with the Cloverdale Community Association and the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce to proactively work with the city.
"We’re not just sitting and watching,” he said. “The idea now is to say, ‘Hey, a lot of this is based on thinking a little longer term. And it’s not wishful thinking, it’s based on our current needs.”
Registration is required for the event and a registration page can be found online by visiting cloverdalebia.com/agm.
Crossridge Church is located at 5732 176th Street. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and the meeting will commence at 6 p.m.
For more info, call the BIA office at 604-576-3155, or email cloverdalebia@telus.net.
