British Columbia
Population: 587,000
- Surrey is one of 28% of cities with a biodiversity strategy.
- Surrey is one of 56% of cities with a park system master plan updated within the last 10 years.
- Surrey sits just above the average of hectares of parkland per thousand people for cities over 500,000 in population.
- Surrey led weekly pop-up park clean-up events throughout the summer of 2020 where residents could stop by a tent set up in their local park to grab litter pickers, compostable bags, and gloves provided by the city.
- Surrey’s new modular park washrooms, installed in two parks and planned for two more, have been praised for their design, which integrates universal accessibility, hands-free features, solar power configuration, and space for public art.
- In November 2020 Surrey launched the Light Where You Live campaign which brought additional lights to parks to help boost spirits for the holiday season.
5.0
1ha parkland per 1000 people
2934 ha of total parkland
40%
of total parkland is natural area
1188 total ha
4%
of parkland is environmentally significant/protected
123 total ha
9%
of total city land is parkland
31,640 ha of total city area
16
2dog parks
10
Community gardens/urban farms
Mixed
Parkland provision goal (distance to park / ha per 1000 people)
Overall: 4.2 ha / 1000 people Community: 1.0 ha / 1000
City class: 1.2 ha / 1000 Neighbourhood: 1.2ha / 1000 in secondary plan areas
Nature preserves/corridors: 0.8 ha / 1000
Distance to park: 10 min walk in town centres and urban areas
$52
3Parks operating budget per person
$30,383,000 total
$15,850,000
Total parks capital budget
5%
Provincially legislated tools available for parkland dedication, acquisition and/or development
5% of the land area of subdivision type development or cash-in-lieu. Municipalities may also fund parkland through Development Cost Charges.
¹Decrease from last year related to improved data accuracy. ²Does not include one additional off-leash area that is privately owned and operated. ³Budgets are from 2020. 2021 totals were unavailable at time of survey as they had not yet been broken down by department.
