Faith Through the Opposition: The Public Hearing That Shaped Elim Village

Every thriving community has moments that test its resolve. For Elim Village, one of those moments came long before the first building was constructed.

By the late 1990s, the Elim Foundation had built on the Bible study group’s vision of creating a Christian retirement community where spouses could age together. They raised funds and found the perfect property, but work couldn’t begin until approval was secured to rezone the former Burnaby Lake Greenhouses property.

What seemed like a straightforward planning process quickly became one of the greatest challenges in Elim’s history. Within weeks of submitting the rezoning application, more than 1,000 people had signed a petition opposing the project.

“There was a lot of misinformation,” recalls planner Marten Van Huizen of Field & Marten Associates. “The story being told was that some Vancouver developer was coming in to build slum housing and townhouses in the middle of their nice community.”

Rather than retreat, the Board chose a different path. They started a counter-petition and hired an Executive Director to manage public relations.

“What we had the opportunity to do was actually articulate who Elim was and what we were all about,” Van Huizen says. “Community support is a fickle thing; people base a lot of their concerns on fear.”

As more people learned about Elim’s mission, many began to change their minds and opposition steadily declined. One memorable encounter happened when protesters came to Marten’s own front door carrying the petition.

“They said, ‘We’ve got this Vancouver developer doing a disastrous thing.’ I said, ‘Oh, really? Would it surprise you to know that I’m the developer?’ Literally, the lady dropped her clipboard.”

Read more: From Vision to Village: A conversation with Elim’s first Executive Director

For Fleetwood resident Terry-Lynn Dryfhout, who would become Elim’s Manager of Communications & Investor Relations, the decision to support Elim was easy—even though the development would forever change the view from her backyard.

“My husband and I built our home in 1990 and our property backed onto Burnaby Lake Greenhouses,” she recalls. “It was like living with a park in our backyard.”

Like many neighbours, if Elim Village was built Terry-Lynn’s family would lose the green space they had come to love. Still, she believed Elim would be a positive addition to the neighbourhood.

“I just thought, boy, I’d much rather that than a whole townhouse complex or another apartment building. We live in a growing city and it’s going to come, so let’s go with this. This is something I’d rather have in my backyard.”

When Surrey City Council held its public hearing on June 21, 1999, about 300 supporters filled the chamber, many wearing green ribbons to show their support for Elim Village.

Terry-Lynn not only attended, but spoke to council in favour of the project.

“The reason I went, it was not that I didn’t think Elim had enough support, but I felt like I could be a voice for our neighborhood,” she recalls. “There was a lot of negative talk about, ‘We don’t want a place where sirens are going to be coming all night,’ and I thought, that’s just not what’s going to happen.”

After years of planning, countless conversations, and much prayer, Surrey City Council approved the rezoning application. Supporters responded with spontaneous praise to the Lord.

For those who had carried the vision through years of uncertainty, the decision marked far more than a planning milestone. It was confirmation that perseverance, faith, and community engagement had prevailed.

Looking back, Van Huizen believes the experience reflected the character of Elim’s leadership.

“This wasn’t a walk in the park and it’s not for the faint of heart, but the Board always was very focused on its mission and saw this as something the Lord wanted them to do … Prayer was a very big part of what we did. Sometimes we’d just say, ‘We have to go through this and the Lord will provide us the opportunity, the words, the wisdom and the direction to make it happen.'”

That approval on June 21, 1999 paved the way for everything that followed. Twenty-five years later, the thriving communities that stand in Fleetwood and Garrison Crossing are a lasting reminder that even the greatest challenges can lead to something extraordinary.