What the regional election results could mean for our neighbourhoods

Results are subject to change.

We've spent much of this election looking at Vancouver. But a trip across a municipal boundary can mean a missing bike connection, a different set of housing rules or a long wait for the next bus. The councils next door matter to the kind of region we want to live in.

The BCA won seven of Burnaby's eight councillor positions. The New Westminster Progressives won five of six. Safe Surrey Coalition won seven of Surrey's eight. Each has plenty of room to pursue its plans at home. Getting the region moving together will take more work.

The results in seven nearby municipalities

These seven municipalities are the first part of our regional coverage. Vancouver's result is covered separately.

Burnaby's school routes look promising. New West's bike lanes worry us.

Burnaby's BCA platform promises more sidewalks and lighting, an expanded School Streets pilot and paths connecting schools, parks and town centres. This is the sort of ordinary improvement we'd like more of. A comfortable route to school or the park makes a difference every day. With seven councillors, the BCA has the votes to move it along if its members stay together.

New Westminster's Progressives transportation plan combines safer crossings and missing sidewalks with a review of existing bike lanes for performance and cost savings. It also promises to end the policy of reducing public parking spaces within its first 100 days.

We welcome the safer crossings. The bike-lane review worries us, particularly alongside the parking promise. A route needs to connect to somewhere useful and feel safe enough to use. We'd like the review to ask how to make that happen. Which lanes the council keeps or changes is still to be decided.

In Richmond, Rob Howard's campaign vision includes a safety audit within 800 metres of schools. Much of that section concerns policing and public order. We'd like the school walk to get attention too: slower traffic, crossings children can use comfortably and protected routes. Those improvements will need their own funding.

We'd like the corner shop to get a look in

Burnaby's BCA promises street-level shops and cafés in town centres, smaller retail spaces and easier permits for patios and markets. Smaller spaces could make room for businesses that cannot afford a large storefront. A shop tucked into a residential street still needs permission to open there.

New Westminster's growth platform proposes micro-retail and pedestrian improvements on Columbia Street. Surrey's Safe Surrey platform promises new businesses two years without licence fees and a City Centre opportunity zone.

There's welcome attention here to smaller businesses. We'd like councils to make room for them a little closer to home as well. A café or grocer on a side street can give a neighbourhood somewhere to meet and a reason to walk. That means allowing a shop to open on a residential street, with workable rules. A licence discount won't help an operator whose location doesn't permit a shop in the first place.

More homes, and where they'll go

The BCA promises to start at least 1,000 rental homes through the Burnaby Housing Authority by 2030, alongside partnerships with non-profits and co-ops. That is a construction-start commitment, not a promise that 1,000 homes will be completed by then.

New Westminster's Progressives support housing around SkyTrain and faster permits, while also proposing to slow growth where infrastructure needs to catch up. We'd like homes and amenities to arrive together. Its proposed Complete Communities Test could help with that, or add another wait before homes can be built. We'll want to read the actual rules.

Surrey's platform pairs faster residential permits and a City Centre opportunity zone with proposed heritage protection against density pressures in Crescent Beach and Ocean Park. The likely debate is about where growth goes as much as how much gets built. Those are campaign proposals; their implementation still has to meet provincial requirements.

The Province's small-scale housing rules already set minimum requirements for covered residential lots, with exemptions. Local election results do not themselves change that framework.

A longer SkyTrain line still needs a good walk to the station

McCallum's platform puts SkyTrain to Newton near the top of Surrey's agenda. A mayor and seven councillors backing it gives that proposal a strong local advocate. It does not by itself establish an approved project, funding or an opening date.

TransLink's Mayors' Council approves long-term transportation plans covering service levels, major projects and regional funding. Its project partnership process also links major investments to local land use, walking, cycling and transit-supportive streets.

A fast bus still needs room to get past traffic. And we'd like the trip to a station to feel like part of the transit system: a decent sidewalk, an easy crossing and somewhere safe to leave a bike. Councils have plenty to do on the streets around a future line while the bigger funding decisions are worked out.

Surrey also promises four years without property-tax increases. We'd like to know how the first budget pays for the municipal contributions and services these plans need. We want better transit to come with enough money to make the neighbourhood around it work.

Metro Vancouver's boards are another institution again. Their directors are selected by member councils, with population-based voting. We cannot infer a new regional governing bloc by counting mayoral winners alone.

For us, Burnaby's school routes are an encouraging place to start. New Westminster's bike-lane review deserves attention early, before routes are changed. Across all these cities, we'd like more room for homes and small shops within an easy walk of transit. That's the perspective we'll bring to the budgets and plans that follow.

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