Surrey is considering increasing the house size from 3550 sqft to 4550 sqft for all lots in the “Single Family Residential Zone (RF)”. While this doesn’t effect house sizes within the St. Helen’s Park neighbourhood as we are considered CD zoned, it will have a huge impact on the look and feel of most neighbourhoods in Surrey.
Why is it important to attend an open house on this issue?
This proposal was moved forward based on a petition with 4239 signatures representing 1507 households or 2.3% of the 64,500 households that will be affected. In comparison, the city required 85% of the 400+ households of St. Helen’s Park to sign a petition AND sign a certified city questionnaire agreeing to the downzoning. Whether you agree with the house size change or not, it’s clear that there has been inequitable treatment regarding house size change.
The best way to get your opinion about the process involved or your opinion about “mega-houses” heard will be to attend one or more of the following open houses. Please forward the link to this post to anyone in Surrey who may not already be aware of this proposed change.
Open House Information
* October 27, 2009 – South Surrey – Elgin Hall
* October 28, 2009 – Fleetwood / Guildford – Bonaccord Elementary School
* November 3, 2009 – Newton – Newton Community Hall (Recreation Centre Multi-Purpose Room #3)
* November 4, 2009 – Whalley – Surrey Arts Centre
* November 5, 2009 – Cloverdale – Clayton Heights Elementary School
All meetings are from 6:00pm to 8:30pm with a presentation at 7:00pm.
City Notice with Addresses – RF Zoning Open Houses
Links to this issue in the news:
Contentious ‘mega-homes’ return to Surrey agenda – The Province August 20, 2009
City may allow megahomes -Surrey Leader August 20, 2009
Comments, including those with opposing views, are welcomed on this site but they are moderated. Please be mindful of your language when posting. Comments with slurs or foul language will not be published.
#1 by Harvey on November 4th, 2009
Allowing 48 % of house is not MEGA HOUSE. This is a wrong and misleading expression used with malice. Check any neighboring city and they allow a lot more. Why is Surrey diffrent by putting a cap of 3550 sq feet (That too including garage). This is nothing but ridiculous.
#2 by St. Helen's on November 12th, 2009
Harvey, I think you may be confused. First I’m not sure where the “48% of a house” is coming from. The Floor-area-ratio (FAR) is currently at 0.48 which I believe means you cannot build a house with a floor area bigger than 48% of the lot square footage – not including the basement. So if you have a lot that is 8,000 sqft, you could conceivably build a house that was 3840 sqft (not including basement) if the RF zone wasn’t capped at 3550 sqft. The new proposal is wanting to increase the FAR to 0.60 which would increase the possible square footage to 4800, if it wasn’t capped by the proposed increase of 4550sqft.
Regarding your “MEGA HOUSE” comment: If it was a comment used with malice or was misleading, why would a Realtor use it in the description for these homes? A quick search found descriptors like “Loaded Newton beauty mega house”, “Well kept mega house” “Must see Mega house”. Not surprisingly these houses all had more than one unauthorized suite in them which was stated plainly in the ad. So if you ask me, “megahouse”, “monsterhouse”, “Mcmansion” etc, are all just descriptive words that represent a house that is oversized and that may or may not dwarf the houses around it and most likely has suites in it. There is no malice in that statement.
Regarding neighbouring cities: If you read the original corporate report (C005), one of the appendices breaks down what each city includes or does not include in their single family zoning. Any city that is over the 3550sqft also includes basements (it says Burnaby does not but that has been questioned). Only Coquitlam allows over the 4550sqft that Surrey is asking for and they include basements too. If Surrey allows the 4550sqft plus basements, this will put them way over what the other cities are. It is right there in the math. Anyone who is saying otherwise hasn’t looked at the real numbers or is trying to pull the wool over other people’s eyes.