LETTER: Surrey doesn’t need a ‘Little Malibu’
Published 7:00 am Saturday, August 22, 2026
Editor,
Doug McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition is campaigning to designate Crescent Beach and Ocean Park as protected heritage areas, shielding them from provincial housing-density rules. Apparently, once you get close enough to the water, a large lot becomes a priceless piece of Surrey history.
Surrey absolutely has buildings and sites worth protecting for genuine heritage reasons. Protect them. But declaring entire neighbourhoods effectively off-limits to new housing is something else entirely.
Calling that “heritage protection” is doing some herculean work.
Newton can grow. Fleetwood can grow. Guildford can grow. Cloverdale can grow. But arrive in Ocean Park or Crescent Beach and suddenly Surrey develops a deep concern for preserving the historic character of detached houses, driveways and massive yards.
Perhaps future generations will thank us for safeguarding this rare cultural artifact: the expensive house on a large lot.
The proposal simply turns Crescent Beach and Ocean Park into Surrey’s own Little Malibu: beautiful views, expensive homes and a strong preference that everyone else admire the scenery from a respectful distance.
Crescent Beach and Ocean Park are two of Surrey’s most desirable areas. We should be finding ways for more people to live there, not fewer.
That does not mean building a wall of 40-storey towers along the beach. There is an enormous amount of ground between a detached house and a skyscraper. Townhouses, multiplexes, small apartment buildings and modest mid-rises can add homes without destroying the character of a neighbourhood.
Even people who proudly call themselves NIMBYs should question the basic fairness here.
Surrey and the region will continue to grow, and the city has provincial housing targets to meet. If Crescent Beach and Ocean Park are given special protection from increased density, that housing demand does not magically disappear. The citywide target does not shrink. Instead, more of the growth needed to meet it gets pushed onto other Surrey neighbourhoods.
So Newton, Fleetwood, Guildford, Cloverdale and the rest of Surrey will be expected to absorb more homes, more traffic and more pressure on local services, while two of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods receive a tasteful little “do not disturb” sign.
And we are supposed to believe this is about heritage?
Heritage protection should preserve actual heritage. It should not be corrupted into a convenient excuse for preserving expensive, low-density neighbourhoods exactly as they are.
Surrey does not need a Little Malibu.
Rob Mumford