Langley City Council adopted our current Official Community Plan back in
November of 2021; the previous Official Community Plan dated back to the
1990s. Our current zoning bylaw dates back to 1995, when I was in Grade 6, and
is outdated. Following the adoption of our current Official Community Plan,
Langley City staff began work on creating a new zoning bylaw. The Official
Community Plan articulates what we want our City to be, while the zoning bylaw
defines what is allowed today. The City has held
several open houses and provided in-person and online feedback opportunities regarding the
zoning bylaw over the past few years. I’ve posted about these open houses and
the feedback received.
On Monday, Langley City Council gave first and second reading to
our new proposed zoning bylaw. There will now be an opportunity for people to provide formal written and
in-person feedback at an upcoming council meeting. After, Council will
consider third reading of the bylaw and then, at a subsequent meeting, final
reading to adopt it.
At a high level, the new zoning bylaw aligns with our Official Community Plan
and provincially mandated height, density, and parking requirements.
For our lowest-density residential zone, which permits detached homes,
‘plexes, and two-storey carriage homes (accessory dwelling units), it now
encourages sloped roofs and a third-floor setback to reduce the boxiness of
newer homes in this zone. These changes are compliant with provincial law and
will still comfortably allow up to four to six units per lot as the new zoning
bylaw increases the allowed lot coverage from 33% to 36% in this zone.
Childcare centres will now be permitted in all townhouse, apartment,
commercial, and industrial zones within our community, with separation
distances in our Historic Downtown and in industrial areas.
The new zoning bylaw codifies our
Townhome and Plexhomes Best Practices Guide, which Council approved in 2023, including provisions for enhanced
outdoor amenity spaces or local park improvements around new townhouse
complexes.
As you may know, due to provincial law, Langley City cannot set minimum
residential parking requirements in most areas north of the Nickomekl River,
as they are within provincial
Transit-Oriented Development Areas. The City is allowed to set minimum EV requirements. As such, the new zoning
bylaw will require that all residential parking spaces be wired up for
chargers, and 10% of residential parking spaces in buildings have EV chargers.
Bike parking requirements have been increased within Transit-Oriented
Development Areas. The new zoning bylaw will also allow people to park their
RVs in their front driveways between May 1 and September 30 (this is currently
not allowed).
To support below-market and non-market rental units, the minimum parking rates
for these units outside of Transit-Oriented Development Areas are reduced to
0.7 and 0.5 spaces per unit. These parking reductions, combined with new
density bonus provisions in the new zoning bylaw (which allow for slightly
higher apartment densities in exchange for below-market rental units), will
enable the private sector to construct these units.
Within Transit-Oriented Development Areas, the new zoning bylaw will require
2.5% of units in townhouses and apartments to be rental units priced 20% below
local market rental rates, with the option to provide a cash equivalent that
the City would put into an affordable housing fund.
The new zoning bylaw will also require that 5% of units in new apartment
buildings must include 3 or more bedrooms.
The new zoning bylaw will also enable new uses in commercial uses, such as
storefront-based vehicle rental, small-scale recycling, arcades, billiard
halls, and containers modified for commercial or recreational use, such as
pop-up coffee shops. The new zoning bylaw will not permit “spas” in our
community, although current “spas” will still be allowed to operate in
accordance with provincial law as non-comforming uses. If a “spa” closes, a
new one wouldn’t be allowed to open.
|
|
Proposed land-use changes to the Official Community Plan to align with
the provincial government's Transit-Oriented Development Area. Select
the map to enlarge.
|
Running alongside the new zoning bylaw approval process is
an update to the Official Community Plan. The proposed update aligns the zoning bylaw zones with the Official
Community Plan’s land-use designations, codifies the Townhome and Plexhomes
Best Practices Guide into the Official Community Plan, and resolves
inconsistencies between the Official Community Plan and the provincial
government’s Transit-Oriented Development Areas. Council gave first and second
reading to update our Official Community Plan.
There has been a significant amount of public input, council input, and staff
work over the last four years to develop this new zoning bylaw. I look forward
to hearing and reading formal feedback from the community as we continue along
this journey.