Yesterday, I posted about re-zoning and development permit items that were on the Monday night Langley City council meeting agenda. Today, I will be posting about the delegations made to council, plus other updates received.
Any person or organization can apply to speak at a council meeting. There were two organizations and one person who spoke to council at the Monday meeting.
The first delegation was from Kate Ludiam of the Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation. She delivered a presentation about the new $30 million expansion of their ER department, plus a new MRI which will be coming soon to their hospital. She noted that the current ER department was built to handle around 25,000 visits per year, and that they are seeing around 47,000 visits per year currently. Ms. Ludiam stated that the new ER department will be able to accommodate 55,000 visits per year. Beyond providing more space, the new ER will be optimized for the different types of medial emergencies that people have. Ms. Ludiam noted that the new ER department will include a secured mental health area with its own entrance. She stated that the new ER is scheduled to open in 2020, and that the Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation has setup a website about the new ER.
The next delegation was from Georgia Damianos who lives in the mixed-use/live-work building located at 19897 56 Avenue. She asked council to consider providing on-street parking for the businesses located in her building. While there is currently parking in the back of the building, she requested that the City remove the landscaping in the front of her building and convert it into parallel parking. Council referred this request to City staff for follow-up.
During the delegation, I stated that the landscaping is both on City property and private property. For projects that only benefit one building, I noted that the current City policy is to cost-share with the requestor of these types of projects. Councillor Albrecht noted that the City is currently working on a community-wide parking management plan.
When it comes to parking, I believe that we need to be making decisions based on best-practices for urban centres. I wouldn’t be surprise if staff recommend rolling up this request into the overall parking management plan for our community.
The final delegation of the evening was from the New Westminster & District Labour Council who presented about the Day of Mourning for workers killed and injured on the job. This is something that Langley City currently observes. The representatives from the Labour Council also stated that they are advocating to update the minimum work age to 16 in BC. Currently in BC, children are allowed to work with authorization from their parents. They noted that thousands of children under the age of 16 are injury on the job every year in our province.
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| Engineering update about City Park renewal project. Select image to enlarge. |
City council also received an update from Rick Bomhof who is the Director of Engineering, Parks and Environment about the following items:
- Continued work on City Park renewal including ball field preparation for the season
- Completion of the renewal of the stairs at Conder Park
- Completion of annual cleaning at Sendall Gardens including installation of a new bench
- Completion of bank stabilization and viewing area work at Brydon Lagoon
- Continued conversion of all standard city-owned streetlights to LED
- Removal of an old water pump near 200 Street and Grade Crescent
- Installation of spring banners Downtown
Tomorrow, I’ll be posting about the remaining items that were on the agenda of Monday night’s council meeting.
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