Sprawl coming to Langley near Trinity Western University

Well, it looks like one of the best examples of suburban sprawl is on its way to becoming reality in the Township of Langley.

Proposed Single-Family Housing Development Near Glover Road and Highway 10.

A development application by Wall Financial Corporation to build 67 single-family houses in farmland was somehow approved by the Agricultural Land Commission in what is pretty much the trickiest ALC application I’ve seen and is now at council for rezoning approval. Orginally billed as an "equestrian community" it is now being bundled as "student housing" with the Trinity Western University District Proposal with the provision of the “construction of a trail network linking the site to Trinity Western University (TWU)”. While student housing looks nice on paper, it seems to me like this equestrian-student-housing-community is going to be nothing more then housing for rich people.

There is nothing sustainable about building single-family houses in the middle of farmland and this development will ensure that everyone who lives there will need to drive everywhere to do anything for a very long time. It is this sort of tricky development that makes me loss faith in Langley at times. Wall Financial Corporation basically spent 10 years chipping away to get this development approved and I guess if you chip away long enough you’ll get your way.

While the majority of development in Langley is happening along the 200th Street corridor and is on its way to becoming urban and sustainable, it is applications like this that give our part of the region a bad reputation as people that are ready to pave over farmland for a quick dollar at the expense of future generations.