With Langley City Council winding down for the holidays, I wanted to take the time to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I invite you to head to Downtown Langley City; you might just experience a little bit of Christmas magic!
I will be taking a break from blogging and will be back on January 6th. See you in 2025.
Last night, Langley City Council held its last meeting of the year. I wanted to post about the last few things addressed at the December 9th and 16th Council meetings.
Langley City Council gave final reading of bylaws to approve the 2025 water, sewer, and garbage/organics collection utility fees as well as other fee updates. You can learn more about this in a previous post.
Council also gave final reading to a rezoning bylaw and issued a development permit for a 6-storey, 283-unit apartment building at 5360 204 Street. This building will have 53 market-priced rental units. Langley City Council also gave final reading to a housing agreement which ensures those units will remain rental units for the life of the building.
Council gave final reading to approve an update to our 2024 – 2028 Financial Plan. You can learn more about what was updated in a previous post.
Council approved changes to the signing officers for banking and investments. You can learn more on the City's website, though this is a housekeeping item.
At the Monday, December 9th Langley City Council meeting, Council considered a rezoning application to allow the subdivision of 20525 and 20541 46A Avenue into 8 smaller lots, which requires a change from our "estate" detached housing zoning to standard detached housing zoning. Usually, this wouldn't raise a red flag, but this application would impact an environmentally sensitive area of our community.
Langley City has mapped out environmentally sensitive areas in our community. The City ranks this sensitivity from low to high. Any development of moderate to highly sensitive areas is strictly prohibited. The City "strongly discourages" development in low to moderately low environmentally sensitive areas.
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| A map of environmentally sensitive areas in Langley City with the area impacted by this potential subdivision outlined in blue. Select the map to enlarge. |
For the City and Council to consider development in low to moderately low environmentally sensitive areas, a proposal must consider maintaining ecological connectivity and function, and having no net loss of habitat area (if loss of habitat is unavoidable, replace the value of lost habitat at a ratio of 2:1.) A proposal must also consider natural features including topography, mature trees, creeks and ravines.
The 8-lot subdivision proposal includes completely flatting the environmentally sensitive areas within its boundary, which also includes a natural hazard area which requires further consideration. This proposal would result in the removal of over 80 trees.
All this led Council to refer this rezoning and subdivision proposal back to City staff as its current form is likely something that Council would not approve.
Langley City does not have many environmentally sensitive areas, so if a proposal impacts an environmentally sensitive area, the result must include a clear net benefit for the community.
If you've been following my posts over the last few years, you'll have read about Langley City's Citizens' Assembly.
In local governments, we have various degrees of engagement with the community. The degree or continuum of engagement is sometimes called the ladder of citizen participation. In the worst case, local governments can work to manipulate the community, but most of the time, local governments inform the community. Examples would be a notice of a public Council meeting so people can show up and observe the meeting or attend an open house to learn about what is going on at City Hall.
As you move along the continuum, there is consulting and involving the community. In Langley City, we do this when we ask you to provide feedback on a community plan such as the Urban Forest Management Strategy or Official Community Plan. With this level of engagement, local governments consider, address or incorporate community feedback, but Council and local government staff are still in the driver's seat. This type of engagement isn't bad as we live in a representative democracy, but to fully include the community as a partner in decision-making, we need to move towards the collaborate and empower part of the engagement continuum; this is where the Citizens' Assembly comes in.
Setting up a system where local governments collaborate and empower the community takes a lot of work to do right. Over the last two years, Langley City Council and staff have been laying the groundwork for our first Citizens' Assembly, which will focus on community safety and well-being. Being fully transparent, Langley City residents and business owners frequently tell us we must do better regarding community safety. This feedback has persisted for as long as I can remember, so what we've done to this point hasn't moved the needle. I believe, as does Council, that for this very complex challenge, we need to collaborate and empower our community. A Citizens' Assembly will hopefully move the needle by putting forward community-led solutions to create a city where people feel safer by addressing the root causes to improve community safety and well-being. Please read a previous blog post for more information on why and what the Citizens' Assembly will address.
On Monday, Langley City Council endorsed moving forward with the next stage of the Citizens' Assembly. The Assembly will consist of 29 members of the community who will be selected based on a demographically representative sample of our community, including people who historically do not engage with local government. The first meeting of the Citizens' Assembly will occur in February and wrap up in the summer.
The Assembly will present its recommendations to Council in the summer. Council will then work to action those recommendations. If Council chooses not to move forward with a recommendation, we will provide a very good explanation as to why. We will take these recommendations seriously. After that, Council will monitor the recommendations' implementation to ensure we are improving community safety and well-being.
Throughout the Citizens' Assembly process, the City will ensure the whole community is informed.