Tuesday, April 23, 2013

City of Langley Capital Budget Update

In January, I posted about the City of Langley’s proposed capital budget for 2013. At last night’s council meeting, council was presented with some proposed amendments to the 2013 capital budget. I want to review some of those amendments.

The first change in the capital budget plan is to increase funding for the McBurney Lane Revitalization Project. The lowest tender for the project was $191,000 higher than the City’s original budget which was $771,500 for the project. The City worked with the landscape architect and contractor to scale back the project, but in the end $134,162 extra will be needed. $89,162 is proposed to come from casino proceeds, and the remaining funds will come from a project which would have seen the replacement of some of the benches in Downtown Langley this year. In addition, the City proposes to install $31,000 worth of video surveillance equipment in McBurney Lane with funding coming from casino proceeds. I’ve been following this project for some time, and it is good to see that the City is committed to revitalizing this public space.

The next project that I’ve been following is the City’s Way Finding Strategy. The City was originally going to spread the project over several year, but has now decided to complete all signage work in 2013. The total cost of the installation of way finding signage for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists will be $236,000, and is proposed to be funded from the City’s Community Amenity Fund which developers contribute to when building new projects. The way find strategy, which was adopted in 2011, will cost about $600,000 if fully implemented.

Finally, now that the City has two electric vehicles charging stations, its looks like they want to purchase two electric vehicles for $60,000 to “model environmental sustainability” to the community.

More details on the remaining amendments to the 2013 capital budget can be seen starting on page 135 of last night’s council meeting agenda.

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