A First Look at the Langley City Centre SkyTrain Station Construction Site

The future end (or start) of the Expo Line in Langley City. Select the image to enlarge.

As you may know, I am a bit of a transit nerd, so I was absolutely thrilled when the folks from Transportation Investment Corporation invited me for a tour of the Langley City Centre Station construction site. I had no choice but to say yes.

I was having a good look around the construction site with our tour guides. Select the image to enlarge.

It was an extremely rainy day yesterday, but even in the pouring rain, ironworkers were still busy at work.

Ironworkers are building columns to support the Langley City Centre SkyTrain Station. Select the image to enlarge.

One thing I learned from the tour is that much of the infrastructure supporting the SkyTrain stations and guideway is underground. For example, in the Serpentine River valley, they have to drive pilings down 100 metres (about the same height as a 30-storey building) to reach firm ground. Langley City is also on mucky ground, so they have to pile-drive down to about 30 metres (about 9 stories).

The station columns themselves are also connected together below ground to prevent them from shifting or twisting.

The interconnected columns for the Langley City Centre SkyTrain Station. Select the image to enlarge.

Work is currently underway on Fraser Highway to support the SkyTrain in Langley City. They are running the power ducting and cabling to support the SkyTrain. This work is expected to be finished next summer. Next year, you will start to see sections of guideway along Industrial Avenue in Langley City. The first guideway section will be near 203rd Street and on the old ICBC site at Fraser Highway and Production Way.

There will be impacts on travel patterns, and you may notice vibrations from pile driving as guideway construction kicks into high gear. To stay up to date on construction, you can sign up for email notifications on the project’s website.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime project in Langley City, and it will have a profound impact on our community by connecting people to more opportunities. For the City’s part, we have been preparing for SkyTrain’s arrival for close to a decade; we will be ready for opening day.

December 8 Council Notes: Community Grant Policy, Medical Clinic With a Pharmacy, Business Licensing, and Land-Use

Langley City Council and staff are continually looking for ways to improve, and one area of focus is updating our Community Grant policy. The City provides up to $168,000 in community grants to nonprofit and neighborhood groups annually, funded by casino revenue we receive. On Monday night, City staff proposed updates to the policy for Council's consideration. At a high level, the updates include setting a $10,000 cash limit per application, providing $500 grants to neighborhoods (informal groups of Langley City residents) to host community-building events, and streamlining the application process. While Council was generally supportive of these changes, they want to see further streamlining of the process for low-dollar-value grants and an increase in the cash limit. Staff will take Council’s feedback to provide a revised policy for Council’s consideration at a future meeting.

Council addressed some land-use matters, including giving final reading to adopt an update to our Official Community Plan. You can read more about this in a previous post.

Council also gave third and final reading to adopt an update to our zoning bylaw to allow a medical clinic with an in-clinic pharmacy, no larger than 1,076 square feet, at 20334 56 Avenue. Our zoning bylaw prohibits a new pharmacy from being located within 400 metres of another pharmacy. As this medical clinic with a pharmacy would be within 400 metres of another pharmacy, it needed an exemption. The applicant stated that this would not be a full-service retail pharmacy and would be a service for their medical patients. Council required that the pharmacy's operating hours match those of the medical clinic. The applicant also agreed to keep the pharmacy exterior signage to the minimum required by the College of Pharmacists. We need more doctors in our community, and the restriction around pharmacy provides assurance that this isn’t a sneaked-in full-service retail pharmacy. You can read about the public hearing in a previous post.

Council also gave first, second, and third reading to update our intermunicipal business licensing bylaw. It added “health care professional or health care service provider who only provides services by visiting clients in their homes” to the program. This allows mobile businesses from Pitt Meadows and Delta, east to Hope, to operate with only one business license in participating municipalities, not up to 12.

Council referred a letter from the Metro Vancouver Regional District seeking feedback on a regional land-use change from Agricultural to Employment lands at the corner of 64th Avenue and 152nd Street in Surrey to staff for comment back to the Regional District. You can learn more about this in a previous post.

Langley City 2026 Budget Receives Approval in Principle

Last night, Langley City Council considered several matters that form the 2026 budget for our municipality. Council gave third reading to the 2026-2030 Financial Plan last night. I’ve posted about the financial plan extensively over the last few months, and I invite you to read a previous post for more information. One of the recruiting discussion points is the thought that the City should use the previous year’s end-of-year surpluses to fund ongoing operating costs.

Local governments must run balanced budgets and cannot run an operating deficit. Because we set tax and utility fee rates once a year, municipal financial plans must be budgeted conservatively. If revenue comes in under budget, it would have a significant impact on a local government's operations. Langley City Council used to approve the budget in February/March of the budget year. This means that any new position wouldn’t be hired until partway through the year. The City also collects fees, gets interest from reserve accounts, and receives grants. These revenues are variable and can be hard to predict. Between mid-year hiring, temporary staffing vacancies, and revenue variability, all these factors can lead to an operating surplus. Between 2013 and 2024, we had surpluses that ranged from $160,000 to $5.3 million. To help reduce surpluses caused by job vacancies and get hiring started earlier, the 2026 budget process is now underway, with adoption expected in December rather than March (as in previous years). Surpluses are hard to predict and cannot be relied upon to fund permanent expenditures or to reduce taxes. Council’s policy is to allocate any surplus to our capital reserves for one-time projects to be invested back into the community.

Council gave first, second, and third readings to a bylaw to adopt the 2026 solid waste fee. The City provides garbage and organics collection services to detached homes and non-strata townhomes. The flat fee for 2026 is $432.00, an increase of $41.00 or 10.5% over 2025.

Council gave final reading to adopt the water fees for 2026. You can read more about this in a previous post.

Finally, Council adopted other various fees and charge increases to keep up with inflation for 2026. You can read more about these fees and charges on the City’s website.

As a note, all bylaws require three readings and an adoption. With the exception of zoning bylaws and amendments to a zoning bylaw, there must be at least a day between the three readings and adoption. Council can choose to have three readings at once or split them apart.

Running an Effective Meeting (Before, During, and After)- Part 2

As I posted in early November, Langley City Council and staff are always looking for ways to improve, including how we run our meetings. We are currently looking at ways to improve our decision-making process and have asked staff to review Best Practices for Efficient and Effective meetings to identify improvements we could potentially incorporate. As part of the process, City staff asked Council what areas we should focus on. They are as follows:

Order:

• There is effective management of questions from Council members to staff before, during, and after Council meetings to allow members to be informed and enable focused discussion at Council meetings

Focus:

• Have clarity in what we’re doing
• Focus discussion occurs with all members having equal opportunity to be heard
• There is consistency in how staff present information to Council, time management of agenda items, and how member of Council get their questions answered, allowing focused discussion during meetings

Efficiency

• Agenda items requiring more “brainpower” are placed early on the agenda
• Staff provide neutral advice to Council members to ensure proposed motions are actionable, written following best practices, and consider potential City resource requirements
• There is a consistent approach for members of Council to direct inquiries/complaints from community members to appropriate channels to ensure matters are addressed, including follow-up with Council, for example, a quarterly report on the top requests for service trends
• Appropriate time, number, and type of meetings are allocated to facilitate Council’s full consideration of significant agenda items; ie, initial meeting to provide information and context to Council, follow-up meetings for Q&A for Council, further information/updates provided as necessary prior to the item coming forward to a meeting for Council decision

Equality

• Getting a broad perspective from meeting participants
• Everyone has equal time for sharing their perspective

Decorm

• All members understand the process to make a motion to take a recess during meetings as needed

Safe Meeting Environment

• Valuing different perspectives while at the same time working together effectively

As I noted in my last post on this topic, these focus areas can also be useful if you are in a strata or non-profit and looking to improve the decision-making process for the organizations you are part of. Langley City staff will now be looking at best practices, approaches, or tools that Council could incorporate. Council would then have the opportunity to decide if, and to what extent, we want to incorporate them.