Learning about Metro Vancouver’s Regional Centres including in Langley

The idea that the Metro Vancouver Regional District should be made up of compact communities connected by high-quality transit has existed since the 1960s, becoming formalized in the mid-1990s under the Livable Region Strategic Plan (LRSP).

Under the LRSP, nodes of regional city centres were to accommodate the majority of new jobs and housing in our region. Because these regional city centres are relatively compact, concentrating jobs, shops, and housing into these areas creates walkable, bikeable, and generally accessible communities. This concentration makes it feasible to serve these centres with high-quality, frequent transit.

In 2011, these regional centres where further formalized into a hierarchy of regional city centres, municipal town centres, and frequent transit development areas.

Map of Regional City Centres, Municipal Town Centres, and Frequent Transit Development Areas. Select map to enlarge.

Regional City Centres are “major regional centres, serving Metro Vancouver’s subregions.” These centres are to be transit hubs.

Municipal Town Centres are “hubs of activity within municipalities.” These centres are to be connected via rapid transit or frequent transit.

Frequent Transit Development Areas (FTDA) are “focal areas for growth in alignment with TransLink’s Frequent Transit Network.”

Map of TransLink’s Frequent Transit Network. Select map to enlarge.

The Metro Vancouver Regional District has created an Urban Centre and FTDA Profiles Dashboard to help monitor the alignment of these centres in relationship to regional objectives such as concentrating jobs and employment into these areas, and transit connectivity.

Langley City and Township share a Regional City Centre. The Urban Centre and FTDA Profiles Dashboard provides a breakdown of statistics for this Regional City Centre by municipality.

Map of Langley Regional City Centre. Select map to enlarge.

For example in the Langley City portion of the Langley Regional Centre, there are 13,045 total jobs based on the 2016 census. That number is 8,650 in the Township portion.

The Langley Regional Centre is one of only two regional centres that isn’t served with rapid transit today. Building SkyTrain to Langley will fulfill a critical regional objective of connecting regional centres with high-quality transit. Even so, 8.5% of people that live in the Langley City portion of the Langley Regional Centre take transit to work as of the 2016 census.

To learn more about Metro Vancouver’s Urban Centres and FTDAs, please explore the regional district’s dashboards.