Langley City Provides Response to Metro Vancouver on Gloucester Industrial Estates Urban Growth Boundary Expansion

As I posted about back in April, the Township of Langley applied to the Metro Vancouver Regional District Board to expand the Urban Containment Boundry to expand their Gloucester Industrial Estates area.

The following map shows the area where they are proposing to expand the Urban Containment Boundry.

Map of Gloucester Industrial Estates. Source: Gloucester Industrial Market Report 2022, Frontline Real Estate Services

The Urban Containment Boundry is a crucial policy tool of our region, along with the provincial Agricultural Land Reserve. They help to protect rural lands from sprawl.

Because of the importance of the Urban Containment Boundry, it requires regional approval if there is a request to expand it. The regional district contacts member municipalities, TransLink, and adjacent regional districts such as the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and Fraser Valley Regional District to receive feedback on proposed changes to the Urban Containment Boundry.

As such, Langley City Council received a request for comment and asked City staff to provide a response to the Metro Vancouver Regional District Board for their consideration.

I encourage you to read the full letter, but I wanted to share an excerpt.

While the City of Langley generally supports initiatives to address the urgent need for industrial land within the region, it is important to note that a foundational goal of Metro 2050 is creating a compact urban area, and that future urban growth, including much-needed industrial development, should continue to be directed to areas that are already within the Metro 2050 Urban Containment Boundary.

If future urban growth continues to occur outside of the current Urban Containment Boundary, it will likely require sewer and water service extensions, as well as transit service expansion, in areas that do not currently have these services. This will likely result in additional long-term costs for providing and maintaining regional and municipal sewer and water services, and will redirect valuable and finite transit service funding away from areas located along the Major Transit Network and other transit-service priority areas within the Urban Containment Boundary.