Langley City Tree Protection Bylaw Continues to Move Forward - Homeowner Questions Answered

As I posted about in early December, Langley City Council is considering adopting a new tree protection bylaw. You can read more about this proposed bylaw in that earlier post. The tree protection bylaw focuses on protecting trees on city-owned or managed property, during redevelopment, in environmentally sensitive areas, and significant trees on all property throughout the City.

One of the questions raised was the cost for a homeowner if they need to apply for a tree permit to remove a tree or pay for an arborist report if required. City staff confirmed at Monday’s Council meeting that there will be no cost to a homeowner to apply for a tree permit and that the City will use its in-house arborist (if required for a report) at no additional cost to the homeowner. Of course, the homeowner would be responsible for the actual costs of cutting/removing a tree. For a redevelopment application, there would be a cost for the tree permit, and the applicant would have to pay for the arborist report.

Staff explained the fine structure for people who violate the tree protection bylaw. If someone removes a protected tree without a permit, the fine starts at $3,000 per tree. The fine could be much higher if City staff determines it is not sufficient for the violation. For example, if someone removes a healthy older tree, the City would go to court to recover the full value of the tree. There are well understood calcutation to understand the full economic and ecological value of a tree.

Council gave third reading to the new tree protection bylaw on Monday. It is expected that Council will consider adopting the tree protection bylaw at its next meeting.

Langley City’s New “Transportation 2050” Plan - High Priority Projects

Langley City’s last long-term transportation plan has been in place since 2014. Over the last several years, the City has been working on creating a new long-term transportation plan titled “Transportation 2050.”

The overall vision of the plan “is to provide a multi-modal transportation strategy to guide transportation policy and investments over the next 25 years.” Multi-modal means considering all forms of travel, such as walking, rolling, cycling, scootering, taking transit, and driving. It also considers goods movement.

Yesterday, City staff provided a final opportunity for Council to provide input on the proposed new long-term plan before formal consideration of adopting it as our new transportation strategy at an upcoming Council meeting.

Over the next decade, the following map identifies the high-priority transportation projects to complete.

Proposed high-priority transportation projects to be completed over the new decade. Select the map to enlarge.

For the high-priority road improvements, they are primarily focused on intersection improvements, such as ensuring turn lanes and bus queue-jump lanes. 62nd Avenue is identified for widening to four lanes. As the north of the centre line of 62nd is in the Township of Langley, this project must be completed in partnership with that municipality.

Council provided additional feedback on the plan, including a request for greater focus on creating slow streets and addressing new e-mobility devices, such as kick scooters. Council also asked for consideration of adding 208th Street to the regional major road network, given future growth in Brookswood. This will allow us access to regional funding when opportunities arise.

For more information, please read the draft “Transportation 2050” plan. City staff will now put the finishing touches on the plan for Council's formal consideration shortly.

Projected Long-Term Job Growth in Metro Vancouver

The other day, I was meeting with a non-profit organization in our community, and they were interested in the projected population growth of seniors in Langley City over the next decade or so. I was able to point them to the Metro Vancouver Regional District. The Region District generates long-term population projections that local governments, non-profits, and the private sector can use. For local governments, it helps us plan the services and infrastructure we need to manage growth.

The Regional District also provides long-term employment growth projects, which it recently updated. By 2051, the Regional District estimates there will be between 1.9 and 2.2 million jobs. The biggest drivers of job growth will be construction and professional, scientific, technical, finance, insurance, and real estate services. There will be a decline in agriculture and forestry jobs.

The following chart shows the high-level job projections.

Graph of Metro Vancouver Employment Projections between now and 2051 by higher-level employment sector. Select the graph to enlarge.

Langley City is expected to grow from 18,095 jobs today to between 21,813 and 24,576 by 2051.

Langley City has a significant number of jobs today relative to our population. For example, White Rock has 8,125 jobs today, and Port Moody has 12,391. These are communities with a similar population to Langley City. This is one of the reasons we have some of the lowest residential property taxes, on average, in the region.

As a note, these projections are estimates and subject to change, but they help us plan for the future such a Langley City’s Innovation District and Food Tech Hub planning.

TransLink Mayors’ Council - What’s Next for Transit Expansion

Leading up to April of last year was pretty intense as a member of the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation, which is one of the two decision-making bodies for TransLink. We had to work towards a regional solution to keep transit services running, expand bus service to meet growing demand, and continue investing in our regional road network. As a regional governing body, we reached consensus on the ultimately approved 2025 TransLink Investment Plan, which keeps TransLink’s operations fully funded through 2027.

Since the end of April, the work of the Mayors’ Council has slowed as the next step toward delivering additional transit service, such as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Langley, depends on additional federal and provincial dollars. The federal government has played a significant role in public transit funding. Between 2016 and today, they’ve provided $4.1 billion (in 2025 dollars). Over the next decade, they are expected to deliver about $2.1 billion, which is a decrease in funding. We actually need more funding from the feds, not less, over the next decade.

As Mayors in Metro Vancouver, we have been lobbying the feds to increase transit funding. For example, in the fall, Mayor Linda Buchanan and I went to Ottawa on behalf of the TransLink Mayors' Council for this.

While folks have been talking about SkyTrain expansion to UBC, the North Shore, and BRTs everywhere, without federal and provincial support, they will remain just lines on a map.

Our collective efforts for transit at this point really need to be focused on securing long-term, stable transit funding commitments from the feds and the province, and presenting our transit needs as a package for Metro Vancouver, not one-off projects. This will take a lot of work and coordination, but it is the only path forward to continue providing much-needed transit service expansion for our region. I also think it is possible because I have seen how unified we can be as a region.