In October's municipal elections, voters chose plenty of politicians who promised to slow down growth.

Not so in Mission. It wants to grow.

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

"We have 65 or more per cent of our working 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 former Mission 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.

Mission Mayor Pam Alexis says the city needs to create more jobs so more of its residents can spend time closer to home. (Christian Amundson)

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 that small 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 for larger 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."

Like many B.C. towns founded at the turn of the century, Mission's waterfront has traditionally been dominated by rail lines and heavy industry. (Christian Amundson/CBC)

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 out in 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," said Celine 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 small farming 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 Road is exploring how new city governments throughout B.C. are approaching age-old issues (some political, some not) in their communities.