Chris Coffee, director of special projects for Silver Springs Development, spoke to the Surrey City Council Thursday about the company’s plans to expand the existing Silver Springs development in Surrey to include more single-family homes, townhomes, a commercial development and possibly an apartment building.

“We have a couple of hundred lots out there that are already platted,” Coffee said. “The lots are no good without houses on them. People won’t come and buy a lot – the community doesn’t improve.”

To be successful, the development needs to advance more quickly than a handful of houses a year, so to address that, Silver Springs Development has a plan to accelerate construction using economies of scale, Coffee said.

“We’ve already ramped up,” he said, noting construction started on five houses before this winter set in. Now logistical work is being done to ensure materials are on hand when needed to keep the project going with more house starts coming into the mix.

Jill Schramm/MDN A map shows a number of plats for new single-family homes in an expanded Silver Springs Addition in Surrey. Townhomes are planned on the west and a commercial development on the south. Multi-family housing also is possible.

The goal is to finish a house every week or two, up to 52 houses a year. As homes rapidly are built in joint phases and new residents arrive, it will fuel demand for the commercial portion of the construction, Coffee said.

“It’s a good time because there is military coming into town. You have BNSF,” Coffee said. “There’s people who want to be here. I’ve been out in Surrey. It’s a really nice place to be.

“I don’t think it’s going to get to be a better time the more we wait,” he added. “I want to build that commercial. In order to build that commercial, I need to have people move in and I need to have more residents. So I build those houses. If they come to that, then I can put in more support for them. Everybody wins.”