July 21 Council Notes: One-Way Update, Housing, and School Sites

July 21 was the last Langley City Council meeting before Council takes a break for the month of August. Our next Council meeting will be on September 8th. In previous posts, I wrote about the 200th Street watermain project that Council approved a tender for, and Langley City’s on-street parking and public parking lot management strategy. Today I’ll post about the remaining items addressed at the meeting.

David Pollock, who is the Director of Engineering, Parks, & Environment, provided a brief update on the Fraser Highway One-Way Project. The project remains on time and on budget. The new sidewalks and first layer of asphalt will be completed before August 16, which is when the Arts Alive Festival takes place. At this point, people will be able to walk, roll, drive, and park on the one-way.

The second (and final) layer of asphalt will be applied at the end of August. Street trees and street furniture (chairs and tables) will be installed in the first few weeks of September.

Council also gave final reading for rezoning the property at 20256-20272 54A Avenue and issued a development permit for a 6-storey 114-unit apartment building. You can read more about this building in a previous post.

Finally, Council approved the Langley School District’s Eligible School Sites proposal. This is a rolling 5-year plan that outlines where the District plans to allocate the School Site Acquisition Charge, a $600-$1000 development charge applied to each new unit of housing in the City and Township. The District submits an updated proposal annually.

The District estimates that, over the next decade, approximately 900 new student spaces will be required in Langley City and 6,300 for the Township. The current plan for the City is to accommodate these students in expanded existing schools, as well as in expanded school and new school sites within the Township. As such, the School Site Acquisition Charge collected in the City and Township will be used to acquire new sites in the Township.

The City and School District are working together on identifying a potential future school site within the City that may be necessary after the arrival of SkyTrain. Council approved the Eligible School Sites proposal.