Of all Surrey's Town Centres, Cloverdale has the clearest architectural evidence of a history as an independent town. Cloverdale was founded and prospered as a railway town, the location of a switching centre for no less than three railways at the beginning of the 20th century. As a railway town, its main street is terminated by tracks and its commercial buildings are lined with boomtown fronts-- recalling Canadian prairie and Interior B.C. railway villages more than other towns on the Lower Mainland. Cloverdale has exploited this unique legacy by sponsoring the largest rodeo in the province. As well, an effective “Main Street” beautification and conservation initiative program has accentuated this “Wild West” theme for 176 Street. The results are welcome relief from Surrey's suburban streetscapes. Moreover, storefronts here are almost entirely occupied by locally-owned businesses, not the franchise chain stores or big box retailers that predominate elsewhere. 176 Street will be familiar to viewers of the popular television series “Smallville,” as the iconic qualities of its streetscapes attracted producers to regularly shoot the series in this real/unreal town. A few blocks north, year-round a successful casino runs night and day on the rodeo grounds. Cloverdale is the location of Surrey's city-wide Museum and Archives, and consequently, tourism is more important to this Town Centre than any other.

At the very heart of downtown Cloverdale there is a powerful opportunity to attract new residents and secure and expand this urban character and commercial vibrancy. The City of Surrey has assembled two large sites immediately adjacent to downtown, the former location of a Safeway and small commercial mall from the 1960s, which is being demolished because of seismic inadequacy. The area is well-supplied with commercial spaces (national and chain stores are located on arterials and several other small malls not far away.) The real opportunity here is housing, at a scale large enough to spark a real community and further support business on 176 Street. All of the Lower Mainland faces a challenge in the lack of affordable rental housing, most particularly in the lack of assisted living facilities for senior citizens. Design in the service of affordable housing is the issue here.

It's time to switch from talk to action about affordable housing, and no better location to start than Cloverdale, with the City of Surrey's land consolidation opening up prospects of designers shaping an entire community that draws on the cultural and physical infrastructure of an established Town Centre. For the kind of housing densities appropriate for this site, there is no more affordable construction than wood frame, so this will be mandated in your designs. As we do not wish for new commercial space to undermine the strength of the current core, only a nominal amount of such uses are permitted. The key focus will be on senior's assisted living (understood in Canada as autonomous apartments with shared meals, medical and social spaces) for approximately one third of the proposed unit count, with affordable family and single's rental housing for the other two thirds, to be accommodated wherever designers chose. Community facilities and open spaces appropriate for this community of up to 1500 residents are required. Please note the impacts of the major north-south truck route on the west side of the site, so noise mitigation is an issue here, but pedestrian and visual linkages into the current commercial main street equally important. Place-making is the issue for “Cloverdale: Round-Up,” building out of – but not necessarily imitating – its extant urban and architectural qualities.

* 550 units of housing, distributed to approximately one third senior citizen's assisted living, and two thirds affordable rental appropriate for both families and singles.

* Wood frame ONLY construction is mandated. This may reach up to six storeys, under recent BC Building Code revisions permitting this height of building (see Amendment to BC Building Code Section 3.2.2.45 Group ‘C’ building, web page reference: http://www.housing.gov.bc.ca/building/code/.)

* No more than 500 parking spaces, distributed where appropriate (but please note that at most, parking structures can have only one/half level underground, because of poor soil conditions and a high water table.)

* No more than 600 square meters of retail and professional offices appropriate to serve the expanded community only. In addition to this, a new facility of 1500 sq meters for the Royal Canadian Legion (ex-soldier's bar and reception facility, open to all residents and ages) is to be included in your design to replace the existing one on site that MUST be demolished, along with the former mall.

* Landscaped outdoor spaces appropriate to the various needs of the diverse residents here, plus one linkage space attractive to the broader Surrey and visitor's community.

Because of the size of this site and number of housing units required, this an urban design proposition, not requiring detailed floor plans, though forms must readily accommodate the housing configurations indicated in your designs. These are the mandatory drawings: a 3-D illustration of the overall development demonstrating its built form and character; an overall plan showing organization of housing, public spaces, vehicle movement and storage; street level view demonstrating streetscape and architectural character.

One paragraph of no more than 100 words describing the urban design decisions and character of the proposal; one paragraph of no more than 100 word describing the affordability strategies.

Situated at the eastern boundary of Surrey, Cloverdale got its name in the 1870's came from the clover found along the banks of the Serpentine and Nicomekl rivers. The area was first surveyed in 1859, with the name Clover Valley registered in Victoria by 1875. The town of Cloverdale grew in parallel with its role as a junction point for five railways, and saw the usual pattern of rapid boom after the arrival of steel rails, then decline when transportation modes shifted. In contrast with much of the rest of Surrey, many of these original building have thus survived, and are in active use today.

Cloverdale was also home to the first Surrey Municipal Hall, now the City Archives. Cloverdale was ambitious enough to have its own opera house which opened in 1902, when it also boasted a hotel, churches, creamery, and RCMP station/jail. By 1910, the BC Telephone Company started local service. By 1920 Cloverdale saw the openings of The Royal Bank, Dann's Electric, Thompson Drugs, and the Curtis Dry Goods store.

The decline of Cloverdale's commercial district decline started in the 1940's with the opening of the Patullo Bridge over the Fraser River, diverting traffic. This led to the relocation of the Municipal hall, RCMP regional offices, and Surrey Co-op headquarters east to the city of Abbotsford. The development of large scale shopping centres in the 1960s in nearby Langley (the next municipality east) prompted further decline in Cloverdale's downtown. Electric interurban passenger and freight service ended in 1955 with the triumph of gasoline engine buses and private automobiles. There are plans to reactivate the Interurban Railway through Surrey as a heritage rail passenger service, starting in 2010.

Cloverdale next saw residential growth and the revitalization of its commercial core in the 1980's. The city of Surrey has undertaken a recent and successful revitalization of 176 Street, and there are plans to re-develop the fair grounds/race track/casino six blocks to the north with new exhibition space. The first agricultural fair in 1888 took place on the grounds of the Municipal Hall. In 1938 the Cloverdale fair Grounds relocated to its current location. Over 20,000 attended the Fair in 2006, and the annual Rodeo is the largest in British Columbia.

Large scale or high rise development in Cloverdale is inhibited by the deep strata of heavy clay soils. Recently a new Surrey Museum has been constructed in the heart of Cloverdale and the adjacent old Municipal hall has been renovated to serve as Surrey's City Archives.

Cloverdale has been at the crossroads for some time. Originally developed as the crossing of local wagon roads and expanding rail lines, it has had 5 different railways meeting within its boundaries. Because it has been a place where networks meet, there are some interesting affects to its growth and current situation. North-South railways are gone, but the interurban corridor remains–with its realignment along the southern edge of Cloverdale's Town Centre. Future use of the interurban line to connect directly to the Newton Town Centre is planned, with a potential connection to the Skytrain system (at Scott Road) anticipated within 8 years.

Cloverdale's Town Centre is currently divided by BC Highways 10 and 15 (The Pacific Highway, the former Trans-Canada Highway), cutting the retail heart into four separate parts, with strong impediments to pedestrian flow. The challenge is to connect these parts while still allowing unimpeded highway traffic. The old “downtown” area is mainly pedestrian-oriented. The area to the South of Highway 10 contains a mall and linear strip development, and the large Cloverdale campus of the Kwantlen Polytechnic University, much increasing pedestrian traffic.

Both Highways 10 and 15 have recently been upgraded to 4 lanes. Highway 10 accommodates traffic East-West in the Fraser Valley and has heavy truck use. The Pacific highway runs from the USA border to Highway 1 (the Trans-Canada) and carries the majority of the Lower Mainland's border-bound truck traffic. Because of this traffic mix, there are high levels of traffic noise night and day along both road corridors. Historically the Pacific Highway followed 176th Street and was the commercial area. As the road expanded it was diverted to the west a few blocks when a rail overpass was constructed. The “old town” continues as the commercial area, but now has much calmer traffic.

The area has had an increase in bus service with addition of community shuttles to service local areas, and addition of runs to Langley (to the East), Clayton Heights (new housing area to north-east) and expanded frequency to connections to Fleetwood Town Centre, Guildford Town Centre and via transfers to City Centre. Future connections to expanded B-line service through Fleetwood or (long-term) future expanded Skytrain are in early planning stages and not anticipated fro 20 plus years.

There are existing bike lanes along the sides of Highways 10 and 15, as well as along 64th Ave., but seldom used because of noise and traffic. There are separate bike lanes marked along 60th Ave, and through the town centre with increased usage. A planned connection to greenway/bikeway is planned along 168th St. In the future. With the expansion of housing surrounding Cloverdale's Town Centre, there are expectations of new greenway and bike connections away from the highways, plus connections south to the USA border and Semiahmoo/White Rock. Future connection to the Surrey Central City SFU campus and Newton Town Centre are planned in the long terrm.

Located directly on the old BCER, now SRY mainline, the interurban corridor, there is an opportunity for future use of intra-community rail connections — a concept called “Community Rail” already in existence in Britain. Start up of a Heritage Tourism service in 2010 will start the process of connecting Cloverdale to Newton. Expansion of this concept would allow connection east to Langley and the rest of the Fraser Valley centres. Expansion west thorough Newton and connecting to the Skytrain line at Scott Road would allow future travellers to get around Surrey town centres without using private automobiles.

There are plans being made by the Cloverdale BIA and Chamber of Commerce to install a small streetcar line and use an historic streetcar they have in storage. The street car line would run up 176 and down i76A connecting businesses there and Kwantlen University to the Fair Grounds and Fraser Downs casino and raceway.