January 14, 2019 Council Meeting Notes: New smoking bylaw, committees, and a grant application for City Park approved

Today will be my final post on Monday night’s Langley City council meeting. On Tuesday, I posted about development matters that were addressed. I posted about updates to our 2017 - 2021 Strategic Plan on Wednesday.

Council received a presentation from the Langley Community Music School. The music school is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year and will be hosting a series of concerts to celebrate throughout 2019. More information on these events, including dates, is available on their website.

Back in December, council gave third reading to update our smoking bylaw and accompanying fine bylaw. This update was given final reading and adopted on Monday. The updated bylaw covers tobacco, vapour products, and cannabis. You can read the specifics of the updates in my December post on the topic.

Langley City has several committees which include members of the community and members of council. Council received reports from the Community Day Committee, Youth Advisory Committee, and Magic of Christmas Committee about the work they completed in 2018.

Council approved funding both Mayor van den Broek and Councillor Martin to attend the Making Cities Livable Conference in Portland, Oregon from June 17 to 21, 2019.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) advocates on behalf of local governments to the federal government. Most of the work of the FCM is done via committees. There were several committees with vacant positions, and council endorsed Mayor van den Broek to stand for election to the FCM Board of Directors, Councillor Storteboom for appointment to the International Relationship Standing Committee, Councillor Martin for appointment to the Economic Development Standing Committee, and Councillor Wallace for appointment to the Social Economic Development Standing Committee.

Langley City is in the process of making significant upgrades to City Park. Both the federal and provincial governments offer grant programs to help offset the cost of projects. Local governments must submit funding requests for these grants, and there is no guarantee of success. Council authorized staff to apply for a $1 million grant under the federal government’s “Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program” to help fund upgrades in the areas marked as “4” and “A” in the following map for the passive grass space north of main parking lot and the installation of 4 ball diamonds for entry level ball.

A map of City Park. Select map to enlarge.

January 14, 2019 Council Meeting Notes: Updates to 2017 - 2021 Strategic Plan

Yesterday, I posted about development matters that were on the agenda of Monday night’s Langley City council meeting. Today, I will be continuing to post about that meeting.

With a new council, comes a review of some of the City’s key policy documents. One of the policy documents reviewed was Langley City’s 2017 - 2021 Strategic Plan. This document onlines key initiatives that the City will take on until 2021. You can read more about the strategic plan in a previous blog post, and by looking at the following table.

Langley City's old priorities and key initiatives in the 5-year strategic plan. Select table to enlarge.

The follow changes were adopted on Monday to the descriptions of several key result areas:

Quality of Life

Old Statement:
We are a community that is an ideal place to raise a family, offers a welcoming and affordable living environment, boasts great leisure and recreational opportunities, and supports healthy, safe and diverse neighbourhoods.

New Statement:
We are a community that is an ideal place to raise a family, offers a welcoming and diverse living environment, boasts great leisure and recreational opportunities, and supports healthy and safe neighbourhoods.

Revitalization

Old Statement:
We have a revitalized downtown core that is vibrant, clean and safe, is a desirable location for industry, and our policies and strategies create a vibrant economy that position the City as the Regional Hub in the Fraser Valley for innovation, education, technology, shopping, health industry, leisure, and entertainment.

New Statement:
We will revitalize our community so that it continues to be vibrant, clean and safe, is a desirable location for industry, and our policies and strategies create a vibrant economy that position the City as the Regional Hub in the Fraser Valley for innovation, education, technology, shopping, health industry, leisure, and entertainment.

Environment

Old Statement:
We continue to focus on protecting, promoting and enhancing environmental assets in the community.

New Statement:
We continue to focus on protecting, promoting and enhancing environmental assets in the community and active in achieving the Zero Waste goals.

The change to the “Quality of Life” statement was meant to reflect that we need a diversity of housing options for people at various price points and configurations in our community.

Changing the “Revitalization” statement was meant to reflect the desire of council not just to renew Downtown Langley, but the whole community. Over the last few years, the City has been renewing our parks, roads, and water and sewer lines throughout all our community. This is update reflects what is already happening today.

The final change to the “Environment” statement adds the objective to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfill in our community.

The current initiatives in the strategic plan remain unchanged, but the updated statements can be used to evaluate other ad-hoc initiatives that the City might consider in the future.

Tomorrow will be my final post on Monday’s night council meeting, and I will outline the remaining items that were on the agenda.

January 14, 2019 Council Meeting Notes: Redevelopment continues in Langley City including a proposed "stacked townhouse" project

Last night was the first public council meeting for a little over a month; the agenda was full. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting about the items that were covered at the first Langley City council meeting of 2019.

Redevelopment is continuing to occur at an accelerated pace in our community. There were two re-zoning and development permit bylaws that were given first and second reading. This will allow for a public hearing to be scheduled about these two applications.

The first re-zoning and development permit application will accommodate at 5-storey, 104-unit apartment building located in the 199A Street cul-de-sac off Brydon Crescent. The proposed project would be the final re-development occurring in that cul-dec-sac as over the last year another apartment building and two townhouse complexes were approved.

Renders of proposed apartment project at 5470, 5480, 5490, 5500, 5510 199A Street. Select image to enlarge.

Site plan of proposed apartment project at 5470, 5480, 5490, 5500, 5510 199A Street. Select image to enlarge.

There are two items from this proposed project that I wanted to highlight. If approved, the developer will contribute $200,000 towards the Baldi Creek Pedestrian/Cycling Bridge project which will connect Brydon Crescent with the trail that runs between Michaud Crescent and 53rd Avenue. Another developer contributed $200,000 to support this bridge in late 2018. The other item is that all parking access will be off the alley to the east of 199A Street.

The second proposed project is for a stacked townhouse complex which is something that hasn’t been done in Langley City before. This 4-storey, 14-unit project would have 7-units on the first/second floor and 7-units on the third/fourth floor. The project is also proposed to have underground parking. The property location is at the corner of 201A Street and 53A Avenue.

Renders of proposed stacked townhouse project at 20172 - 20178 53A Avenue. Select image to enlarge.

Council also gave first and second reading for a proposed discharge of a land-use contract for 5139 209A Street. If approved, this would permit an addition to be built onto the current house on that property.

Tomorrow, I will continue to be posting about the remaining items cover at last night’s meeting.

Some facts about 10 square kilometre municipalities in BC

When people think of Langley City, usually the size of our community comes to mind. When your neighbours are two of the largest municipalities in British Columbia (both in land area and population), it can lead to a distorted perception our community’s scale.

How does Langley City compare in land area to other municipalities in our province? How does our population and density compare?

Comparing population density and land area in square kilometres. Municipalities in BC. Select chart to enlarge.

There are six municipalities in BC that are around 10 square kilometres. The City of North Vancouver has the largest population and highest density of the group. Langley City has the second larger population and density.

Municipality	Land Area (Sq. Km)	Population	Density
Ladysmith	11.99	9,417	785
Nelson	11.95	11,313	947
City of North Vancouver	11.85	56,741	4,788
Oak Bay	10.53	19,228	1,826
Grand Forks	10.43	4,324	415
Langley City	10.22	27,577	2,698

The are 21 municipalities in BC that have a land area under 10 square kilometres.

Municipality	Land Area (Sq. Km)
Osoyoos	8.5
Creston	8.47
Clinton	8.19
Nakusp	8.05
Telkwa	7.04
Lumby	5.93
Belcarra	5.5
Oliver	5.5
Armstrong	5.22
White Rock	5.12
Sidney	5.1
Enderby	4.26
Chase	3.77
Fruitvale	2.7
Lions Bay	2.53
Duncan	2.07
Pouce Coupe	2.06
Warfield	1.89
Montrose	1.46
New Denver	0.87
Slocan	0.78

With Langley City’s recently adopted Nexus community vision and the eventual arrival of rail rapid transit, the population of our community will continue to increase. Looking at the City of North Vancouver, Langley City have room to growth, even within 10 square kilometres of land.