Wednesday, September 18, 2019

CBPOA - September 4th, 2019, General Meeting Minutes



Directors Present: Andrew, Rona, Jim, Bruce, Robert, Derrick.                  Alexandra Neighbourhood House
1)      Call to order:  7:33PM.

2)      Presentations:        2:1) Hugh Norris, Park Facilities Operations Manager who was scheduled to talk about the Sports Box did not appear.

From the floor: Basketball kids sometimes light up the box with their car headlights and play until 1:30 AM. Suggest that when the Blackie spit park gate is locked, lock the sports box.
Have heard from the City that they are scheduling one sport at a time for 45 minutes duration. An exception is for the men’s hockey who have been playing 11:00 AM to 1 PM on a given day for 25 years.

                                     2:2) Report sent in by Tindi Sekhon re. the drainage and paving project. The contractor is making good progress. The works are tentatively scheduled to be finished at the end of October – depending on any archeological findings and the weather. The suggestion is that Tindi attends the next CBPOA General Meeting along with someone from Transportation to discuss observations and learnings.

From the floor: The air quality on the street where the paving has been removed and is still being used by traffic is totally unacceptable owing to the dust from the work and the vehicle traffic.
The end of Agar has been dug up and refilled for four weeks and no water has been applied to damp down the dust. The archeologists are sifting all the excavated material. Some people are now re-routing on to Gilley.
Councillor Pettigrew undertook to contact the Project Manager about the traffic flow and the resultant air quality concerns.
Tindi’s e-mail address, THSekhon@surrey.ca  was provided for members to contact him directly.
Question: How much work is actually being done in a week? The workers start at 7:00 Am and finish at 3:30 PM – why not work a longer day and shorten the project duration?

3)      Adoption of the July 3rd, 2019, General Meeting draft Minutes.
Proposed,  Jim    Seconded, Robert.    All in favour.

4)      Matters arising from the minutes.  Has the minute from the meeting, together with the Blackie Spit Master Plan and the 2018 Review document, been passed along to City Hall?
Councillor Annis responded that the materials have been received and she will report back at the November CBPOA General Meeting.

5)      Correspondence and updates.    5:1) Recent City announcement.

·        Strategy Released to Help Surrey Navigate Towards a Flood Resistant Future.
              Surrey Flood Adaption Strategy, (CFAS), draft is now available for comment.

The City has wrapped up the first four phases of work in the development of CFAS which was shaped by almost 3 years of technical analysis, community meetings, engineering studies, stakeholder workshops, outreach events, collaboration activities and site visits.
The draft strategy sets out decade-by-decade actions to prepare for and adapt to sea level rise.
The longer term Strategic Directions are based on an 80 year time frame, (ie. to 2100), and represent the outlook for flood adaption for the three CFAS planning areas which include:
·        Mud Bay – Coastal works/Highway 99
·        Crescent Beach – Expanded Edge
·        Semiahmoo Bay – Infrastructure improvements and Land Raising

The City thanks all participants.
Now in the final phase - reporting back – the City invites us to browse through the background documents at     Surrey.ca/coastal      - read the draft CFAS Strategy and share our comments.
Tell the City what we think at    coastal@surrey.ca  which is open for comments until September 16th.

[Expanded Edge – expanding the beach outwards to reduce the slope of the beach and, in turn, reduce wave run-up.]

                                                5:2) The fence and whistle cessation.
We have been in contact with City staff. Little progress has been made but the lines of communication involving BNSF and Transport Canada remain open and being actively pursued by the City.
There is some good news, Transport Canada has amended the 2018/2019 contribution agreement to March 31st, 2020 – which means the $120K for the fence etc. is now available again to the City.

Question from the floor: where are we with the fence? Councillor Annis responded that she had met last week with Transport Canada and BNSF at City Hall. Things are moving quickly – expecting the terms of reference for the lease and the placement of the fence lease terms. There is a staff briefing to come and she will have another meeting with BNSF in two weeks.

6)      New Business.
From the floor – the gate at Blackie Spit is not being locked on time. It is usually two hours late and sometimes even later. We do not want issues to occur because of the late closure. Councillor Annis will follow up with staff.

Rona reminded members about the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Station 5 Crescent Beach Ducktona 5000, on Saturday September 14th - when up to 5000 rubber ducks will be released as a fund raising event by the Station. Tickets are $5 each and 5 for $20.

From the floor – speeding on Sullivan – can a large 30 KPH sign be painted on the street? Local residents have chalked a 30 sign on the street for now. Can there be a sign indicating 30 KPH on all streets in Crescent Beach?  Speed bumps are being installed as drainage and paving proceeds; can’t come fast enough. Buses are among the worst for speeding.

From the floor – have we heard anything more about small buses for Crescent Beach? There was a recent piece in the Peace Arch News talking about double decker buses coming to White Rock centre.

From the floor – Gardiner has been inundated with parking and parking issues this summer. Robert stated that he has been to the City web site and posted the parking regulations on the Crescent Beach Facebook page.
The link to the City web site is: City of Surrey Parking Regulations and click on Parking without a sign. Members should educate themselves for their own benefit and for their guests.

From the floor – another education item. No dogs on the beach in the summer months. People don’t read the posted signs and the by-law officers feel the signs are inadequate.
Could the CBPOA put up sandwich board signs to educate people?
City Hall should enforce the by-laws. People down here seem to want it both ways – no contravention of the by-laws but no consequence for those who do contravene.
Councillor Pettigrew talked to a bit of a change in philosophy around the City about too much ticketing – perhaps more warnings. At least have staff evaluate this change.

What is happening with Beecher Place?  The roof has been replaced and work continues on the interior.

7)      Motion to Adjourn.  Proposed, Jim.  Seconded Sally. Meeting adjourned at 8:10 PM.

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