Mayor Forster with Chamber Executive

The White Rock / South Surrey Chamber of Commerce’s valuable work in tourism has been recognized by White Rock City Council in a unanimous vote to enhance funding of their fee-for-service partnership. The Chamber operates the Visitor Information Centres at White Rock’s west beach and out of its office on King George Highway, and is a founding partner of Tourism White Rock, a newly formed three-way partnership between the Chamber, City of White Rock and the White Rock Business Improvement Association. The Chamber will continue to provide the Visitor Servicing component for the City of White Rock.

"The Chamber of Commerce and the BIA have been proven allies in promoting the community over the last few years, and the City is pleased to partner with them to further heighten White Rock’s profile as tourism destination" Mayor Judy Forrester remarked. “The Chamber is a valuable resource for White Rock”.

The Chamber has been in operation for 71 years in the Peninsula and has over 700 business members from a wide range of companies small to large. They offer business services, networking opportunities, pro-business advocacy with government and host the Annual Business Excellence Awards honouring successful local businesses. Their 14-member volunteer Board of Directors, along with a staff of 5, works tirelessly promoting business in the community.

Additionally, they are under contract with Tourism British Columbia to offer tourism services in the City of White Rock. In 2007, they welcomed over 36,000 visitors from around the world through their centres, offering information on attractions, activities, events, accommodation and providing directions to a host of local business services throughout the peninsula. With the staff, summer students and volunteers from the White Rock Waterfront Greeters, they are able to offer year-round service and play an important role in building White Rock as a tourism destination. The enhanced fee-for-service arrangement provides the Chamber with funding of $41,000 for 2008 with a review and further commitment of funding through 2013.

“This enhanced funding will allow us to keep doing the excellent work in servicing tourism in White Rock as we have been doing for the past 21 years” says Chamber President Terry Parr. “Tourism services in the community will benefit from the decisions that have been made by the City. We are very proud to be playing a role in Tourism White Rock and marketing White Rock as a great place to visit.”

Planning for Tourism White Rock is currently underway and is a part of Tourism BC’s Community Tourism Foundations program, which has worked with the community to conduct planning sessions and bring tourism service providers together. The objective is to develop White Rock’s tourism offerings, create community buy-in and sell the White Rock sea-side experience to over-night visitors and day trippers.

More information about the WRSS Chamber of Commerce can be found at www.whiterockchamber.com or by calling 604.536.6844. Information on Tourism White Rock can also be found at the same number..

Mayor's Report - April 2008

When I sat down last month with Mayor Forster the Spirit Square was on her mind, as it has been with a number of people in the community.

Spirit Square

“I attended a meeting called by the merchants on the waterfront at Grapes restaurant. I was joined by members of Council and City Staff. I listened to their concerns about the loss of parking spaces due to the design of the Spirit Square next to the museum. I assured the merchants there will be no net loss of parking. We will exhaust every avenue we have to make sure their businesses will not be negatively impacted. There are three very viable solutions to the problem. We could look at a people mover/bus that could shuttle visitors from the parking lot at Semiahmoo Park back and forth to West Beach. We are also considering re-painting the parking stall and by making them all slightly smaller we could create the additional 33 spots that have been lost, and the other solution to the problem may be to build a parking parkade. The City owns a parking lot behind The Boat House at the corner of Vidal and Victoria Drive. We would be able to create close to 100 parking stalls if we built a parkade. My final concession at the meeting with the merchants was, I struck a Mayor’s Task Force to look at all angles of this hotly debated issue. It will be made up from Council, Senior City Staff and Business reps.”

Miramar/Bosa

As the final stages of construction on the 2 towers in Stage 1 of Miramar Village near completion, I thought it was time for an update on Stage II.

“We heard from Bosa this week and we were informed there are still roughly speaking 2 dozen units still unsold in the first two towers. Until all the units in Phase I are sold Bosa will not be starting construction on Phase II. There is no concrete start day that Bosa must adhere to for the start of Phase II so it might be awhile before we see the start of the second stage of construction. I think the tenants that are there now will be there for awhile longer. Presently the tenants like Buy Low have been given until December 2009. It could stretch beyond that, it will entirely depend on the real estate market at this point. The City and the residents of White Rock though will have a beautiful new Community Centre which is going to be housed in this first Phase.”

Transit

Earlier this year Mayor Forster formed an alliance with the Mayors of the adjoining cities and municipalities, including Delta, Surrey and the two Langleys, the City and Township. The thinking was a united front would be more effective in dealing with Translink. I wondered how the alliance was working. “Well we are continuing to put pressure on Translink to provide better service the SOFA (South of Fraser Area). “Translink held a meeting this week over in the Clayton district of Surrey. I was unable to attend but my counterparts were well represented. Translink I think is hearing our voices, they have committed more money for our area, but we still have a long ways to go. We are going to keep up the pressure. Despite the money they are directing our way, there is still much room for improvement. I am still surprised it took us this long to get a simple thing like a bus from White Rock up to Guildford, but now that it is in operation, the rider ship is very good.”

Official Community Plan OCP

After months of meetings by the Task Force, a series of Open Houses and Public Discussion we are now heading for the stage of implementation of our new Official Community Plan. When I posed the question if she felt the OCP would benefit from going to a referendum the Mayor had this to say “I don’t believe this should go to a referendum. The citizens of White Rock elected us to lead, and that is what we should do is lead. Over the years I have in my time on Council seen people and some Councilors opposed to things like sidewalk cafes, the building of Totem Park and the creation of our world class promenade. There will always be a sector of the community that does not like change. I think we need to move forward. We are now exploring how we can solicit more support from a wider portion of the citizens of White Rock. We may do some form of mail out. There will also be another Open House for the public to see the Final Draft of the OCP. Then it will come before Council for the final vote. I am expecting that will take place some time around June.”

If you have something you would like me to ask the Mayor at our next monthly Mayor’s Meeting, please forward your question along to

editor@whiterocksun.com

I thank Mayor Forster for taking time out of her busy schedule on a monthly basis to sit down and bring us up to date on the various “hot topics” on people’s minds. It is refreshing in this day and age when most politicians will only make themselves available in carefully orchestrated settings. No matter what your personal feelings about our Mayor may be, you have to give her points on this one, I believe.