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.