March 8 Council Meeting: Proposed apartment, human trafficking, and income assistance

On Monday afternoon, Langley City Council gave first and second reading to a set of bylaws, enabling developing a 6-storey, 68-unit apartment building along 207th Street.

Rendering of proposed apartment at 5394, 5396, 5400, & 5402 207 Street. Select image to enlarge.

The first bylaws, if Council approves, will amend the current Official Community Plan. The current Official Community Plan uses units per hectare as its metric for density. The proposed new Official Community Plan, which Council could adopt this year, uses Floor Area Ratio.

Currently, the Offical Community Plan allows 173 units per hectare in the area of the development proposal. The proposed 6-storey apartment has 258 units per hectare.

The proposed update to the current Official Community Plan will allow a Floor Area Ratio of 2.1. This ratio is consistent with the permitted density in the proposed new Official Community Plan.

Floor Area Ratio is a more straightforward way to control density. For more information, please view the Wikipedia article on the topic.

The second bylaw is for rezoning the property for the proposed apartment.

City staff will now schedule a public hearing. I will post more about this proposal after the public hearing.

Cathy Peters, an advocate for eliminating human trafficking, delivered a presentation to Council. As it was a short presentation about a complex topic, Council invited her to provide an extended presentation at a future council meeting.

Council also approved a motion to write a letter calling for “the Province of British Columbia permanently reinstate the automatic, $300/month benefit for people receiving disability benefits and income assistance and move to raise disability and income assistance to a livable rate that is above the market basket measure (MBM).”