Here is a quick guide to finding the record of decision-making and, in the case of Public Hearings, resident input on issues brought before Council. Also listed are key Council and Staff contacts.
WHAT HAPPENS AT COUNCIL MEETINGS?
Briefly the two main types of Council meetings deal with the following:
1. Land-use (Mondays, 5:45 pm)
– Commercial/Industrial/ agricultural land use applications by town center {First reading to introduce the development application, Second reading to take the application to Third reading/ Public hearing as well as Development Variance Permit approvals.
– Residential land use applications by Town center {First reading to introduce the development application, Second reading to take the application to Third reading/ Public hearing as well as Development Variance Permit approvals.
– Items referred back { Development Applications which were heard at Third reading/Public Hearing but were referred back to planning staff for further work}
– Corporate reports
– Delegations { presentations regarding land-use other than those presented in Council-in-committee}
– Correspondence
HOW TO GET INFORMATION ON UPCOMING COUNCIL MEETINGS :
Want to find out the agenda or dates of upcoming Monday night regular Council Meetings with their three components?(Council-in-Committee, Regular Land Use, Public Hearing). Please refer to the right hand flyout menu or click here for the Council Calendar which has links to the upcoming adgenda of the next meeting (and within the agenda, links to pertinent Planning or Corporate reports to Council). To find out more about what types of items are dealt with during the different kinds of Council minutes (at least with respect to land-use issues such as rezoning application and development) click here.
HOW TO REVIEW PAST COUNCIL MEETINGS:
All Minutes of Council meetings and its various committees, including Public Hearings, are published online on the City of Surrey website. As of January 2015, the GHSA will post links in the left fly-out menu for Regular Council/Public Hearing meetings (or here) so you don’t have to go to the City website first. It takes about two to four weeks for meeting minutes to be posted online.
Official Minutes: Land Use/ Regular Council Public Hearing/ Council -in-Committee. Select by year then by type of meeting.
Action items of above: Minutes of course cannot be posted instantly, so if you want decisions/action items from a recently-held meeting and don’t want to refer to the video, check Action items.
Video feed of Land-Use Committee, Finance Commitee, Council in Committee, Regular Council, Public Hearings (Monday night Council meetings) http://civic.neulion.com/cityofsurrey/ The video feed is organized by meeting (Land Use/Public Hearing/Special [Regular] Council), but you have to fast-forward to the particular section you are interested in. A calendar on the “Neulion” page is shown so you can access past meetings.
Minutes of Committees, Commissions and Boards: click here to find out what the various C/C/ and B’s are, then select the body you are interested in. Minutes will be posted in that section.
Planning Reports to Council: these are the reports Council reads in order to pass applications through the required readings and which are the most important aspect of an application. They include everything from arborist’s reports to site plans and are necessary reading for taxpayers and residents interested in speaking before or against an application at a Public Hearing or just in general to see how a passed application was proposed. They are accessed by year and date. Click here to view Planning Reports to Council.
Most often requested documents, according to Legislative Services. From Councillors expense accounts to by-laws, click here for a collection of documents you may or may not ever need to read depending on your interests.
CITY CONTACTS
COUNCIL EMAIL ADDRESSES
Mayor Linda Hepner Office Phone: 604-591-4126 mayor@surrey.ca
Councillor Tom Gill Office Phone: (604) 591-4634 Email: TSGill@Surrey.ca
Councillor Bruce Hayne Office phone: (604) 591-4025 Email: BruceHayne@Surrey.ca
Councillor Vera LeFranc — Email: Vera.LeFranc@surrey.ca