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The Surrey Civic Coalition will be hosting another forum for the trucking community Friday, November 4 at 7pm at its campaign office, 109-12414 82 Ave.

Rina Gill, an SCC candidate for City Council, has been working with the trucking community for years in an attempt to “find solutions to lack of safe, adequate truck parking facilities in Surrey.”

She said the main focus of the forum is to address the “lack of action on truck parking issues by the current Surrey City Council,” and, just as importantly, give the truckers a platform to discuss other issues they may be experiencing.

Gill said there are thousands of truck drivers registered in Surrey, but are limited parking options available.

In February 2009, after the last election, Councillor Bob Bose introduced a motion to allow for more truck parking in South Westminster. The motion proposed to amend the zoning South of the Pattullo Bridge by deleting the IL-1 zone in its entirety, and rezoning the properties to IL zoning, which allows for truck parking.

Bose explained, “It was a mistake to change the zoning in this neighbourhood to disallow truck parking in the first place. The IL-1 zoning in South Westminster does not allow for salvage uses, but all we’ve seen is a bunch of salvage that doesn’t conform, and a lost opportunity for truck parking.”
Gill said she is excited about the possibility of opening up hundreds of acres of truck parking for those who are so desperately looking for space.

“This has been a frustrating and costly exercise for more than 9,000 independent truckers registered in Surrey,” Gill said. “Truckers have been telling me that they have been frustrated by the delay, and that they want answers now.”

The forum will listen to the trucking community and get feedback on SCC’s solution to lack of truck parking in further detail, said Gill.

Gill said another issue in the trucking community is the lack of truck stops in the city and she expects to hear ideas to address that.
To register for the upcoming Trucking Forum, please call the SCC office 604-593-5410 or email: rina@rinagill.ca

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