{"id":688264,"date":"2026-05-23T09:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T09:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/688264\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T09:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T09:31:10","slug":"surrey-council-to-vote-on-stop-work-order-pilot-project-monday-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/688264\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrey council to vote on stop-work-order pilot project Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>              Surrey council to vote on stop-work-order pilot project Monday<\/p>\n<p class=\"pubStamp\">Published 4:00 pm Friday, May 22, 2026<\/p>\n<p>Surrey city council will vote Monday on launching a one-year pilot program to introduce a \u201ccustomer-focused, compliance-based approach\u201d to stop work order enforcement featuring a \u201cmore balanced enforcement framework that protects public safety while treating residents fairly and reasonably.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The intention is to improve public education and communication concerning when building permits are required, make the permit process easier to understand and navigate, prioritize voluntary compliance, education, and corrective action before enforcement in cases that don\u2019t involve \u201cimmediate life-safety risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.surrey.ca\/sites\/default\/files\/corporate-reports\/CR_2026-R100.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">corporate report <\/a>coming before council states the intent \u201cis not to weaken building safety standards\u201d and that city hall \u201cwill continue to act quickly and decisively where there is an immediate and serious life-safety concern.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Building inspectors post stop work orders at illegal construction sites. The pilot program would test two approaches to this with the first \u201cpathway\u201d involving immediate postings where \u201cimmediate and serious life-safety concerns\u201d have been observed, a property owner refuse to comply with certain deadlines or work continues after the owner receives a request to stop.<\/p>\n<p>The second \u201cpathway\u201d concerns issuing warning\/compliance letters instead of a stop work order, with consideration to first-time offenders and if the construction can be \u201cregularized\u201d through permits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis pathway facilitates voluntary compliance,\u201d the report reads. \u201cThe letter will provide clear instructions to the property owner on how to bring the property into compliance. It will include a phone number and email for staff who will be able to assist, provide resources (including identifying appropriate consultants\/professionals), clarify next steps, deadlines, and consequences for failing to comply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last month Mayor Brenda Locke <a href=\"https:\/\/surreynowleader.com\/2026\/04\/29\/city-staff-told-to-build-more-front-end-education-into-surreys-stop-work-order-process\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">asked city staff to review<\/a> Surrey\u2019s stop-work orders and building permitting process with the aim to provide council with \u201cmore balanced\u201d enforcement that protects public safety \u201cwhile treating residents reasonably.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe intent of this motion is not to weaken the building safety standards,\u201d she said before council approved it on April 27. \u201cIt is to make sure our system is fair, is understandable and focused on helping people to the right thing before we move to enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On April 27, 2022, the City of Surrey launched its Illegal Construction Enforcement Team (ICET) to crack down on unpermitted residential construction in Surrey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey council to vote on stop-work-order pilot project Monday Published 4:00 pm Friday, May 22, 2026 Surrey city&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-688264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}