Langley City Council and staff are continually looking for ways to improve, and one area of focus is updating our Community Grant policy. The City provides up to $168,000 in community grants to nonprofit and neighborhood groups annually, funded by casino revenue we receive. On Monday night, City staff proposed updates to the policy for Council's consideration. At a high level, the updates include setting a $10,000 cash limit per application, providing $500 grants to neighborhoods (informal groups of Langley City residents) to host community-building events, and streamlining the application process. While Council was generally supportive of these changes, they want to see further streamlining of the process for low-dollar-value grants and an increase in the cash limit. Staff will take Council’s feedback to provide a revised policy for Council’s consideration at a future meeting.
Council addressed some land-use matters, including giving final reading to adopt an update to our Official Community Plan. You can read more about this in a previous post.
Council also gave third and final reading to adopt an update to our zoning bylaw to allow a medical clinic with an in-clinic pharmacy, no larger than 1,076 square feet, at 20334 56 Avenue. Our zoning bylaw prohibits a new pharmacy from being located within 400 metres of another pharmacy. As this medical clinic with a pharmacy would be within 400 metres of another pharmacy, it needed an exemption. The applicant stated that this would not be a full-service retail pharmacy and would be a service for their medical patients. Council required that the pharmacy's operating hours match those of the medical clinic. The applicant also agreed to keep the pharmacy exterior signage to the minimum required by the College of Pharmacists. We need more doctors in our community, and the restriction around pharmacy provides assurance that this isn’t a sneaked-in full-service retail pharmacy. You can read about the public hearing in a previous post.
Council also gave first, second, and third reading to update our intermunicipal business licensing bylaw. It added “health care professional or health care service provider who only provides services by visiting clients in their homes” to the program. This allows mobile businesses from Pitt Meadows and Delta, east to Hope, to operate with only one business license in participating municipalities, not up to 12.
Council referred a letter from the Metro Vancouver Regional District seeking feedback on a regional land-use change from Agricultural to Employment lands at the corner of 64th Avenue and 152nd Street in Surrey to staff for comment back to the Regional District. You can learn more about this in a previous post.
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