Surrey city council has decided without debate to return on-street pay parking on streets north of Surrey Memorial Hospital to how it was before the pandemic began.

Scott Neuman, Surrey’s general manager of engineering recommended to the politicians in a corporate report to approve amendments to the city’s fee-setting bylaw related to on-street pay parking in the area north of 96 Avenue.

Neuman noted that on-street pay parking began in August 2014 along some streets north of Surrey Memorial Hospital/96 Avenue in August 2014. The area bounded by King George Boulevard to the west, Fraser Highway to the north, and 137B Street to the east (known as Innovation Boulevard) mostly consisted of detached single-family homes “in transition to commercial development.”

“At its introduction, this on-street parking was managed to encourage park-and-ride use in support of the King George SkyTrain Station,” Neuman explained. “On-street parking enforcement in this area was temporarily suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.”