Mission looks to become more than a bedroom community

In October's municipal elections, voters chose plenty of politicians whopromised toslow down growth.

Not so in Mission. It wants to grow.

The district of 40,000 people has a major commuter problem: nearly sevenin 10 of its residents travel to another city for work, and over a third of residents begin their commute before 7 a.m.,more thannearly every other municipality in the Lower Mainland.

"We have 65or more per cent of ourworking population leaving every morning, and that doesn't help build community or that sense of community. It's a problem," said mayor Pam Alexis, who campaigned extensively on growing the city's industrial base.

A formerMission councillor, Alexis defeated Randy Hawes, who had won seven straight elections in the region (four as mayor, three as a B.C. Liberal MLA) by nearly double the amount of votes a sign, she believes, of a community looking to evolve.

"We have a tremendous number of new residents and I appealed to their senses," she said.

Finding the land

With waterfront, rail lines and rapid transit already in place, the main challenge Mission faces isn't a lack of industry interest, but a lack of available land.

"We have probably three calls a week from industry in Vancouver looking at relocating because they want to be closer to their employees," Alexis said.

"Their workers live in the valley. They want to relocate.

"But we have to turn away many of those because we don't have the flat land that they are wanting."

It means there are just nine businesses that employ more than 100 people. Among municipalities with at least 20,000 people, only Port Moody and Pitt Meadows have less. And the biggest employers are all government related, be it the hospital, school board, or correctional facility.

"Our membership base is thatsmall business base," said chamber of commerce president Andrea Walker. She noted that if Mission had more large businesses, the district could be able to lower property tax rates for homeowners.

"There's been interest forlarger business to come here. But there hasn't been the space to accommodate them in terms of industrial or commercial land or space for them to move to."

Tackling the waterfront

To Alexis, the solution lies in better use of the city's expansive waterfront, currently dominated by lumber and other natural resource companies.

"Some existing long term businesses along the river perhaps aren't using all of their space ... they may be using 35 per cent of what they actually need," she said.

A revitalized waterfront could also create more housing diversity there's only one apartment building taller than five storeys, and the price of single-family homes has doubled in the last four years.

How that possible growth plays outin practice has yet to be figured out, but the few large businesses already in Mission would welcome more company.

"We still need a little more to be able to grow and have those additional luxuries that a larger town has," saidCeline Dauphney, co-founder of Urban Valley Transport, which employs 60 people.

"A lot of people at one point wanted to keep it as Sleepy Hollow, a smallfarming community," Dauphney said.

"But there's more and more people that live out here that want to stay close to home."

Metro Matters: On The Roadis exploring how new city governments throughout B.C. are approaching age-old issues (some political, some not) in their communities.

Metro Matters On The Road: Mission

6 years ago

Duration 2:37

It's known as a bedroom community, but now residents of Mission are hoping for more jobs in town to cut down on the number of people forced into lengthy commutes.