City of Langley Council Motions

At Monday night’s City of Langley Council meeting, there were more motions on the agenda than I can ever remember seeing.

Councillor Hall and Councillor James both had motions about councillors acting a mayor getting upgraded to the mayor’s pay scale for the period of time when a councillor acts as mayor. Councillor Hall also had another motion around adding a question period to all future council meeting.

Councillor Schaffer won the award for most motions as he had seven on the table:

THAT Council include improvement and expansions of the walkway/trail system in the Nicomekl Floodplain in the Parks, Recreation and Culture Master Plan.
THAT Council investigate connecting the bike paths from the floodplain to the downtown in the Master Transportation Plan.
THAT Council direct staff to investigate and draft a bylaw regarding boarded-up houses.
THAT Council direct staff to partner with TransLink and ICBC to introduce an incentive for bicycles.
THAT Council direct staff to investigate and report back to Council on the creation of a community garden on Michaud Crescent behind the West Country Hotel.
THAT Council direct staff to investigate creating a small dog off-leash area around Michaud Crescent and 201A Street.
THAT Council direct staff to investigate adding additional resources for downtown/city maintenance as part of the 2014 budget process around the McBurney Lane area.

I strongly support adding bike paths from the Nicomekl Floodplain to Downtown Langley. The Floodplain provides a great option for east/west off-street cycling, but the City doesn’t have a north/south bike path.

I’ve been advocating for better pedestrian and cycling infrastructure in the City for some time. The City’s Parks and Environment Committee, which I sit on, passed a motion to get council to study separated bike lanes a while ago. I was told that separated bike lanes would be addressed in the Master Transportation Plan. A separated bike lane between the Floodplain and Downtown would make perfect sense to me, and could be the start of a proper bike network. Improving the trail system in the Floodplain would also benefit pedestrians and cyclists.

One of the other priorities of the Parks and Environment Committee is to establish more community gardens in the City, and it is good to see that there is a motion addressing adding more community gardens.

I’m happy to see motions that promote the creation of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, but even if these motions get adopted, the real test will be if they get backed up with funding in 2014.