CBPOA - Sept 9, 2020 - General Meeting Minutes

 

Crescent Beach Property Owners Association

September 9, 2020 General Meeting Minutes

Directors Present: Andrew, Rona, Beryl, Bruce, Jim, Liz, Henri.                                                            

Held via Zoom with approximately 30 members present.

1.     Call to order at 7:33 pm.

2.     Adoption of July 8, 2020 General Meeting draft minutes, as circulated. Proposer, Jim.   Seconder, Margie.  All in favour.

3.     Matters arising from the minutes: none

4.     Correspondence and Updates.

a.     Application for AED (Start Me Up BC) – Jim Carter reported that the original application for a grant was not accepted by the city, as we are a non-profit organization, however a different application is now being submitted.

b.     Transportation Update from the City of Surrey Engineering Department – Ken Karunaratne, Traffic Engineering Manager submitted updates, via email, on items that were brought up at the July General Meeting.  These updates were circulated on September 2 to all members as an attachment to the agenda.  Topics included Whistle Cessation, July and August Traffic Counts, traffic control at the intersection of 128 St and Crescent Rd, Residents-only permit parking during summer months, request for speed humps on Gordon and Mackenzie, request to make Sullivan one-way, and a request to relocate the Blackie Spit parking lot entrance.   This Transportation Report follows these minutes.                

c.      Update of Blackie Spit Working Group projects.  Counsellor Linda Annis submitted a summary of recent maintenance/construction projects.  This summary can also be found at the end of these minutes.

d.     Church Property Update – Correspondence has been received from Peter Klenner, Pastor, All Saints Community Church, White Rock, of their intention to buy the church and parking lot on Beecher Street. Their intention is to do some inside renovations and plan to have the renovations completed in 8 or 9 months, when they can host an opening.   

5.     New Business

a.     Public Safety at railway crossing – an email was received from Jack Traa highlighted that he has witnessed cycling accidents at the location of the train track crossing of Crescent Road and Bayview.  Despite the sign that instructs cyclists to dismount before crossing the tracks, it seems cyclists continue to ride across. Their tires get caught in the tracks and cyclists are being thrown off their bikes.  Some of these incidents required Surrey Fire Services and BCAS to attend.  Some incidents involve children. All incidents that Jack observed required traffic to stop and caused congestion on the tracks.

b.     Pedestrian Safety between the tracks and the marina turn-off - Jack Traa has also observed pedestrians walking on both sides of the roadway near the railway intersection on busy days, presumably to get to their vehicles which are parked beyond the tracks.  As many vehicles increase their speed as they approach the hill, and there are no clear pedestrian walkways, he is concerned about pedestrian safety on busy days.

c.      Fires on the beach at night; groups on the beach after dusk – April Davidson asked about fires on the beach at night and the numbers of people on the beach after dusk. Bob Dhaliwal asked that Blackie Spit Park close at 10pm during the summer instead of 11. “The reason behind this is that it is dark way before 10. There really is no need for it to be open till 11. It will avoid Late parties in the park. And it will be a lot safer.” 

There was discussion.

o   Propane fires are allowed on the beach, wood fires are not.

o   RCMP Non emergency number can be called if wood fires are observed on the beach (604-599-0502) and Surrey Fire Services will attend.

o   There is confusion regarding the closure of the beach at night.  Some signs state that the beach park is closed from dusk to dawn (dusk being one half hour after legal sunset).  Blackie Spit Park currently has sandwich boards stating the gates will be locked at 11:00, however a signpost at Blackie Spit Park indicates various closures depending on the month. ( 6 pm, 8 pm, 10 pm, depending on the season).

Moved by Bob Dhaliwal, Seconded by Henri, that the gates be closed at 10 pm in summer, with improved signage and a visible patrol.  All in favour.  Motion will be discussed with City of Surrey.

 

6.     Motion to Adjourn:  Proposer, Jim. Seconder, Ron.  All in favour.

Transportation Update - Updates on items that were brought up at the last meeting

 Submitted by City of Surrey Engineering Department – Ken Karunaratne, Traffic Engineering Manager

 

1.      Whistle Cessation-BNSF’s Lease Agreement for the fence

Our tentative schedule to submit the redlined agreement to BNSF will be mid-September.

 

Conducting additional traffic counts in the neighbourhood in July and August.

We conducted traffic counts on July 1 (Canada Day), and July 4 & 5 (Saturday & Sunday) and August 1-3 (BC-day weekend). Data showed increased traffic volumes in July and August compared to April and May. The following table summarizes the data collected at the intersection of Crescent Beach Rd/128 St from 7am-10pm on the days identified. April was used as the baseline for comparison.

 

Total Volume-7AM-10PM
Direction of Traffic	April 12 (Baseline)	May 17	% Change	July 5	% Change	Aug 2	% Change
Towards Crescent Beach	3804	4901	29%	7645	101%	5519	45%
Leaving Crescent Beach	3816	4661	22%	5982	57%	5345	40%
Total	7620	9562	25%	13627	79%	10864	43%

2.      Traffic control in the neighbourhood.

Rob Costanzo updated Laura that he brought up the issue of traffic control at the intersection of 128 Street and Crescent Road with the City’s Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) which decided that it would be best to simply let traffic self-regulate rather than clear the queues where there would be a higher platoon of vehicles driving into the neighbourhood potentially creating a worse situation with congestion. Electronic message board signs were installed in advance of this intersection advising motorists of when the beach traffic is congested (and to expect delays) as a means of deterring some traffic from entering the area.

 

3.      Concerns related to traffic conditions would have on Emergency Services’ response time

Fire Chief Thomas provided a letter dated August 10, 2020 to the CBPOA regarding emergency response to Crescent Beach

 

4.      Implementation of Residents-only permit parking during summer months

Currently the City does not have a mechanism in place to provide residential parking permit.  Also, we have examined residential parking permit programs in Vancouver, White Rock, and farther afield (i.e. San Francisco). The consistent feedback from these communities is that they are expensive to develop and administer, subject to re-selling of permits, and work contrary to policies and zoning that correctly places the emphasis for resident parking within the resident’s property itself. Due to the reasons mentioned, the City does not support any residential parking permit.

 

Requests/concerns we have received from the Crescent Beach residents over last several weeks and our response to those requests

 

1.      Request for speed humps on neighbourhood roadways specifically on Gordon Avenue and Mackenzie Road

The City has received several requests for the installation of speed humps on roadways in the neighbourhood. In 2017 and 2018, the City completed an evaluation of the Crescent Beach area for traffic calming and undertook extensive neighbourhood consultation with residents and the CBPOA. A comprehensive plan for traffic calming in Crescent Beach was developed primarily to support livability in a unique beachside neighbourhood and was implemented as part of the City’s drainage improvement project last year. Through our consultation, we understood that the plan that was implemented had addressed the community’s concerns and that no further traffic calming would be required. We also found that some residents were not supportive of the installation of speed humps. The attached diagram shows the locations where the speed humps are currently installed.

 

In addition, the results of traffic studies conducted by the City on roadways in the neighbourhood indicated that the majority of vehicles were travelling approximately at the 30 km/h speed limit and there were no demonstrated safety issues related to speeding. Given above, the City would consider initiating a technical review for speed humps only on locations that meet the current traffic calming guidelines which require a petition signed by 10 separate households and the current operating speeds to be at least 10 km/h higher than the posted speed limit.

 

2.      Request to make Sullivan St one-way westbound and Beecher St one-way eastbound and use the other lane of those roads for peds and cyclists only. 

Although the circulation pattern has merit when everyone leaves the beach at the same time (avoids the bottleneck at the Beecher/Sullivan intersection), one-way streets pose many challenges related to driver compliance, accessibility, etc. While one-way streets are quite common in busy downtown areas in some cities, there are very few one-way streets in Surrey.  Compliance with the one-way restriction is usually very poor, even with extensive enforcement, and the lack of compliance could result in greater safety concerns as law-abiding drivers do not expect others to drive in the prohibited direction.  As a result, the City generally does not support converting two-way streets to one-way streets.

 

3.      Request to relocate the Blackie Spit parking lot entrance from the north end of McBride Ave to the north end of Dunsmuir Rd

The City Parks department has reviewed this request and, as the end of Dunsmuir Road leads into sensitive natural area, they would not support a new road/driveway through the park at this location. This would also require the relocation of existing trails and park infrastructure for little benefit.

 

Ken

Ken Karunaratne, M.Eng, P.Eng, PTOE | Traffic Engineering Manager

 

Updated information for each maintenance/construction project cited in the Blackie Spit Working Group Report,

Submitted by Councillor Linda Annis.

 

Beachfront path extension:

• Archaeological permit is expected to be ready for September 10^th
• Our environmental permitting is approved from now until Dec. 15^th
• We expect to be able to start construction in October, based on the projected availability of in-house crews.

 

Wickson Pier maintenance:

• The City has selected a contractor to complete the repair work
• The scheduled start date is October 1^st with completion anticipated by the end of October

 

Playground upgrade (across from Camp A):

• The new play structure for Alexandra Tot-Lot arrived on June 30^th.  The manufacturer experienced delays due to COVID-19.
• The City’s archaeological permit is scheduled to clear on Sept. 10^th.  We experienced delays with this permitting process due to COVID-19 effects.  Some of the work requires archaeological monitoring.  We will commence work once we can line this up.
• The City expects the work to take 3-4 weeks.  We require somewhat dry conditions for the concrete footings, so we plan to get that stage of work done as soon as possible.
• The play area will be closed and fenced off during the entirety of the project.

 

Closure of Christopherson Steps and 1001 Steps:

• Steps remain closed indefinitely due to COVID-19.
• Several flights of stairs were completely replaced and numerous boards were repaired/replaced recently at 1001 Steps. 
• The City is working on a long term plan for rebuilding/replacing parts or all of 1001 Steps.  This includes a condition assessment and design for more significant repair/rebuild work