Proposed Changes to Beef Up the Securing of Vacant Properties and Buildings

Over the last year, housing project activity has slowed in Langley City and throughout Metro Vancouver. While we’ve always had some lots with non-occupied buildings, demolished buildings, or simply vacant, the number has increased recently. Langley City currently has a Community Standards Bylaw that requires one of the following for these lots:

• Securing windows, doors and other openings of vacant buildings
• Installing fencing
• Activating a security alarm system
• Deploying security guards
• Installing exterior lighting, other measures and devices

One key challenge with the bylaw is that it requires only one of those measures. On many of these properties, we are seeing trespassing, unsafe occupancy of vacant buildings, illegal dumping, property damage, and fires, among other unsafe activities. The current approach isn’t working.

Council will hear from City Staff today regarding proposed updates to our Community Standards Bylaw.

A key proposed change is that all vacant properties must be fenced, and all vacant buildings must have windows, doors, and other openings secured. The proposed changes include beefed-up, prescriptive rules for securing vacant buildings. The default fencing type is proposed to be chain link, with the option to use temporary construction fencing for up to 3 years for projects with active development applications, provided the fencing is bolted together.

The proposed changes also make it clear that the City can require the remediation of hazardous or nuisance conditions on a property.

Council will have their say on the proposed changes today.

In-Person and Online Events to Learn About Invest Langley City

As you may know, Invest Langley City is our community’s vision for infrastructure. It outlines the projects the City plans to build over the next decade or so, including water, sewer, transportation, parks, public safety, and recreation facilities to meet the needs of residents and businesses.

Although many of these projects will be incorporated into Langley City’s rolling five-year capital project plan in due course, Langley City is seeking public feedback on if we should move forward with two projects as part of the next municipal election: expanding Timms Community Centre, including a performing arts centre, and building a new or renewed aquatic facility. These are significant projects with significant financial considerations for our community.

To learn more about these two proposed projects, ask questions, and provide feedback, the City is holding several in-person pop-up events and an open house. There will also be a virtual open house. In addition, you can complete an online survey between April 7 and May 1, 2026, and enter a draw to win $100 Langley City Downtown Dollars.

The pop-up events will be:

National Day of Pink
Date: Wednesday, April 8
Time: 12pm to 2pm
Location: Timms Community Centre

Pool Opening Event
Date: Saturday, April 18
Time: 2pm to 4pm
Location: Al Anderson Memorial Pool

Earth Day Event
Date: Saturday, April 25
Time: 12pm to 2pm
Location: Douglas Park

The open house will be:
Date: Tuesday, April 14
Time: 5pm to 9pm
Location: Timms Community Centre

The virtual open house will be on Wednesday, April 29th, between 6pm and 7pm.

To find out more about the in-person events, sign up to receive an update when the survey goes live, or register for the virtual open house, visit the Invest Langley City project page on Let’s Chat, Langley City!

Ensuring a Safe and Secure Drinking Water Supply

When I ask people what is required to support urban populations at the most basic level, they usually say roads and housing. And while important, the most basic requirement is access to a safe water supply and sewage. In the Metro Vancouver region, we have one of the cleanest drinking water supplies in the world, but we still face risks due to climate change and continued population growth.

The Metro Vancouver Regional District is updating its Drinking Water Management Plan to ensure a continued safe and secure supply.

The plan is organized into five main goals and five priority areas, with a total of 92 action items. The five main goals are:

• Provide high-quality drinking water
• Provide uniterupted drinking water service
• Manage the drinking water service in a cost-effective way
• Manage water to protect and enhance the environment for all
• Develop and manage a skilled workforce to support the drinking water service

The five priority areas are: a resilient water system; water supply quality and quantity; environmental protection and enhancement; conservation and efficiency; and operations workforce development. You can read more about the 92 actions in the draft report.

The drinking water system includes both Regional District infrastructure, such as water reservoirs, treatment plants, and water mains and member jurisdiction-owned and managed local water distribution systems.

Inside Langley City-owned water reservoirs

All member jurisdictions of the Regional District will need to endorse the plan for it to come into effect, including Langley City, as we will need to take actions to support it.

For example, if the plan is endorsed, Langley City would need to “protect water quality in local distribution systems by implementing a regional cross-connection control approach and collaborating with Metro Vancouver to optimize water quality” as an action.

If you’d like to learn more, please visit the Metro Vancouver Drinking Water Management Plan Update page.

Stay Up to Date on Resilient Neighbourhood Networks Safety Initiative

As I posted about last month, Langley City Council received the recommendations from our Citizens’ Assembly on Community Safety. This group of 29 citizens, selected through a lottery-type system and supported with experts and City staff, met and developed their recommendation during 2025. One of the recommendations is setting up Resilient Neighbourhood Networks, which are grassroots, neighbourhood-level groups where people will come together to get to know their neighbours, building trust, and tackle safety issues from emergency preparedness to first aid to neighbourhood safety walks to neighbourhood events.

The City recently was seeking volunteers to help co-create and set up the early groundwork for launching Resilient Neighbourhood Networks. This window recently closed. The goal is to launch the Resilient Neighbourhood Networks program in select neighbourhoods in June.

I know that life is busy, and it can be hard to keep track of things. If you’d like to take part in the Resilient Neighbourhood Networks, you can follow the “Investing in Community Safety” page on Let’s Chat, Langley City! You will get a reminder from the City when the next phase of volunteering and participating opens.

“Know Your Neighbour” Volunteers.

Back in 2019, Langley City ran a “Know Your Neighbour” one-day campaign in which volunteers simply walked door-to-door, handing out safety tips in various neighbourhoods. It was a very positive experience for both the volunteers and the people at the door. The “Know Your Neighbour” walk could be one aspect of Resilient Neighbourhood Networks, and I’m very excited about the program launching this summer.

Lower Youth Rates and Super Seniors 80+ $1 Rate Coming April 6th

On April 6th, Langley City’s admission rates for recreation services are changing. There are two big changes. One is that the child and youth rates are merging, meaning it will be a $3 dollar drop-in rate for children and youth (aged 4-18). This saves $1.30 for people aged 13 to 18 and is 10¢ more for people aged 4 to 12 per visit.

For seniors aged 80 and older living in Langley City, the City is introducing a $1 drop-in rate.

No matter your age, it is always good to participate in a recreation program, and the City offers activities that are right for you, from art to weightlifting to swimming to fitness programs for people who use mobility aids. There is something for you.

There is a modest increase in the adult and senior rates. The 10-vist, 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month pass prices have also been updated to reflect the new categories and pricing. The game rooms and track pass are still $25 per year. The City also still offers the Leisure Access Program, which provides a discount for people living in Langley City with lower incomes.

March 9 Council Notes: Modernizing Fire Safety Bylaw and Other Matters

Over the past few days, I’ve posted about the topics covered at the Monday Langley City Council meeting. Today, I will conclude by covering the remaining topics addressed.

Council gave first, second, and third reading to approve in principle a new fire safety and protection bylaw, which, if adopted, would modernize and replace our current bylaw. At a high level, the new bylaw aligns with the latest provincial Fire Safety Act, including how the City performs preventive building fire safety inspections, moving from a time-based to a risk-based approach. For example, a restaurant would have a different preventive fire safety inspection process than an office.

Council also gave first, second, and third reading to update the Fees and Charges Bylaw and Municipal Ticket Information System Bylaw, reflecting the new proposed fire safety and protection bylaw.

Back in October, Langley City Council sent a contingent of us to Ottawa for an advocacy mission to the federal government. You can read more about this in a previous post. The official report of the mission was presented to Council on Monday, along with follow-up activities resulting from the mission.

Council appointed volunteers to our various City committees for the 2026 term. You can learn more about the committees on the City’s website.

Council approved sending a letter of support to the province to continue the BC Farmers Market’s Nutrition Coupon Program, which provides $27 weekly of food coupons to use at farmer markets for lower-income families, pregnant people and seniors.

Council received a presentation from Langley Community Action Team about creating a permanent public memorial for those affected by the toxic drug crisis. Council referred this to our Arts, Recreation, Culture & Heritage Committee for further consideration.

March 9 Council Notes: Industrial Development and Housing Proposals Approved

Council addressed two development proposals at its Monday night meeting. Back in 2024, Council issued a development permit for a proposed two-building, multi-unit, small-bay industrial project at 5721 Production Way.

View of Self-Storage Building from 196th Street Overpass.

View of Industrial Building Project from Production Way.

The development applicant returned with a new design that includes one multi-unit, small-bay industrial building and one self-storage facility. Because it is a significant departure from the original 2024 proposal, it required a new development permit.

The City’s Advisory Design Plan made several recommendations, and the applicant incorporated the following into the project:

• Incorporate more design features to break up both southeast corner walls
• Add more variation to the west building’s roofline
• Provide weather protection structures in both outdoor amenity areas
• Consider using pavers in front of business entrances
• Consider greater use of ornamental plantings in the Production Way outdoor amenity area

Council approved issuing the development permit.

Council also gave final reading and issued a development permit for a 26-unit townhome development at 20815 45A Avenue & 4560, 4570 and 4580 208 Street. You can read more about this in a previous post.

March 9 Council Notes: Speeding Up Simple Development Applications, New Zoning Bylaw in Effect

As Langley City continues to grow, Council and City staff are looking at how we can efficiently process housing and commercial development proposals while maintaining high-quality standards and appropriate oversight. Currently, with the exception of detached houses, all development proposals require a development permit. Development permits help ensure that certain design and quality-of-life measures are met for each development proposal. A triplex or small addition to an industrial building follows the same process as a 300-unit apartment project.

While larger projects should always have a full review process, including through the City’s Advisory Design Panel, which includes architects and landscape architects, adding a garbage room to a restaurant, building a duplex, or changing the location of a driveway by 1 metre, does not.

City staff presented a proposal at Monday’s Council meeting, which would allow staff to issue a development permit without requiring the Advisory Design Panel or Council approval for simple applications that don’t require a rezoning, such as:

• Residential project with 6 units or fewer (in alignment with provincial recommendations)
• Small commercial (max. 1,000 m2 floor area) and industrial (max. 2,000 m2 floor area) projects outside of Downtown

Council also currently approves Development Variance Permits; I can recall only two such permits over the last decade, for a duplex and a garbage enclosure. Minor Development Variance Permits are also proposed to be delegated to staff. Minor means small changes, such as changing the lot setback to allow a coach home by less than 1.5 metres, increasing lot coverage by no more than a percentage, making small changes to parking requirements (by no more than 10%), and landscaping.

Example of a garbage enclosure that could be a staff-delegated Development Variance Permit process.

To ensure transparency, all development permit applications would still be posted to the City’s website as they are today, with full details.

Council was generally supportive of this approach, and staff will present an updated Development Application Procedures Bylaw for Council's consideration at an upcoming meeting.

Before Christmas, Council gave third reading to our new zoning bylaw. Last night, Council gave the bylaw its final reading and adopted it. The delay was caused by the provincial government, as the Ministry of Transportation and Transit needs to approve all zoning within 400 metres of a provincial highway (the Langley Bypass).

Improving the Governance Model at the Metro Vancouver Regional District - Upcoming Consultation

Last year, the Metro Vancouver Regional District received the results of a report it commissioned on potential recommendations to improve regional district governance. While almost all of BC has regional districts, the Metro Vancouver Regional District is home to over half the province's population, creating unique challenges. As mentioned earlier this year, the board currently has 41 directors; this number is determined by the provincial government.

Local governments, including regional districts, are set up more like a strata council, non-profit, or corporate board. The legislation that enables local government is designed to encourage meaningful discussion at meetings. The current Metro Vancouver Board, which is expected to grow to 50 members shortly, would make it impossible for everyone to have meaningful discussions at meetings. It would take days to get through a simple Metro Vancouver Regional District agenda. In practice, it would need to operate more like a legislature to be effective with that number of members, though I believe that goes against the general idea of how local government should work in our province.

We don’t need to look far to see what a potentially smaller Metro Vancouver Regional District Board would look like. The TransLink Mayors' Council has 23 members, including the same representation as the Metro Vancouver Board. I sit on the Mayors’ Council, and I can say that the Mayors’ Council itself operates very effectively. I’m not suggesting that the region’s mayors control the Metro Vancouver Board, but the size and weighted vote structure at the Mayors’ Council seems to strike a good balance.

Another challenge at the regional district is that the water and sewer utilities are extremely complex, so the governance review is also looking at how to best ensure that the elected board members have access to independent technical expertise advice, such as by having a major project committee or smaller water and sewer boards with elected representatives and independent technical experts appointed by the main regional district board.

The Regional District is planning a comprehensive consultation on proposed governance changes, likely running from May to June 2026. It will include opportunities for everyone to participate.

Governance isn’t a cure-all, but it is always good to identify changes that can improve the decision-making process. While I’m all for making changes, I also believe that it matters more who is elected or appointed rather than the governance structure. Good people can get a lot done even with a challenging governance structure.

Metro Vancouver Seeking Feds to Ban Large Nitrous Oxide “Whip Cream Charger” Cylinder

In December of last year, the Metro Vancouver Regional District issued a media release noting that large nitrous oxide cylinders being thrown out are dangerous, causing explosions at the regional waste-to-energy facility, damaging equipment, and endangering workers' safety.

People can recycle gas cylinders, such as nitrous oxide cylinders, for free by dropping them off at a Metro Vancouver Recycling and Waste Facility. While the Regional District has seen a sizable increase in people recycling these cylinders since the media release, they are still being thrown in the garbage, and explosions continue.

Post Combustion Nitrous Oxide Cylinders. Select the image to enlarge.

Nitrous oxide cylinders are typically used for whipping cream chargers and are small in size. When used, the cylinder is punctured, which depressurizes the container, removing the risk of explosion when it is recycled or accidentally thrown into the garbage. The nitrous oxide cylinders of concern are larger and are sold in many vape shops in our region and online. They do not have pressure release valves. These larger containers are typically not used for making whipped cream.

The Regional District is seeking to ask the federal government to prohibit the import and sale of large single-use valved nitrous oxide cylinders. The current ad hoc approach by Health Canada to recalling these products appears to be on a retailer-by-retailer basis, which is ineffective. A quick search online shows that there are many vendors able to ship to addresses in our region.

It will be interesting to see what actions, if any, the federal government will take.

Protecting Half of Metro Vancouver’s Land Area, Preserving Natural Spaces

It is a well-established fact that natural spaces in urban areas provide benefits to society, such as food, shade, flood control, and clean air. These natural areas also provide clear benefits to human health. These areas function better when they are linked together. The Metro Vancouver Regional District’s goal is to protect 50% of its land area. About 40% of our regional district’s land is protected currently, focused on the North Shore mountains.

The Regional District has created a Regional Natural Infrastructure Network Opportunity Map to help member municipalities identify areas for future conservation, natural parks, environmentally sensitive areas, or environmental development permit areas of regional significance. These areas could be purchased by the member municipality or acquired as part of development proposals.

The following is the overall map. An interactive version is available on the Metro Vancouver website. Major areas are green, minor areas are yellow, and already protected areas are hashed.

Regional Natural Infrastructure Network Opportunity Map Overview. Select the map to enlarge.

Zooming into Langley City, you can see there are opportunities for major areas for protection along the Langley Bypass by KPU, as well as minor areas such as Newlands Golf Course.

Regional Natural Infrastructure Network Opportunity Map for Langley City. Select the map to enlarge.

The map's data is from July 2025. It is anticipated that the next update will occur in 2028.

Let’s Chat, Langley City! Open House Tonight

Langley City is holding an open house where you can chat with various City departments, committees, and service providers. Do you have a question or concern about emergency planning? Did you want to learn about the Citizens’ Assembly on Community Safety? Did you want to learn about the City’s finances? Did you want to find out how you can volunteer to help your community? You can share your questions, concerns, and learn at the Let’s Chat, Langley City! Open House.

Senior City staff, service providers, and volunteers will be available to assist you. Members of City Council will also be at the open house.

The following City departments, service providers, and committees will be on hand:

• Fire Rescue Service
• Bylaw Enforcement
• Langley RCMP
• Emergency Planning
• Engineering, Parks & Environment
• Development Services
• Recreation, Culture & Community Services
• Social and Community Wellbeing
• Financial Services
• Langley Animal Protection Society
• Langley City Library
• Accessibility Committee
• Arts, Recreation, Culture & Heritage Committee
• Crime Prevention Committee
• Environmental Sustainability Committee

There will also be a kids' zone to help out parents and caregivers. The open house is low-key; you can drop in any time and stay for as little or as long as you like.

Date: March 3, 2026
Time: 6:00 pm-8:00 pm
Location: Coast Langley City Hotel & Convention Centre, 20393 Fraser Highway

Proposed Change to Regional Land Use: North 256 Street Industrial Land in Maple Ridge

For some time, I’ve been following proposed regional land-use changes in Metro Vancouver. All Official Community Plans in our region, including land-use, must be consistent with the Regional Growth Strategy. The overall goals of that strategy are to create a compact urban area; support a sustainable economy; protect the environment, address climate change, and respond to natural hazards; and develop complete communities.

The City of Maple Ridge is proposing changes to its Official Community Plan in an area called the North 256 Street Industrial Land, as shown in the following map.

Map of North 256 Street Industrial Land in Maple Ridge. Select the image to enlarge.

Maple Ridge is proposing to convert 277 hectares of regional rural land (about half the size of White Rock) to 198 hectares of regional industrial land and 79 hectares of conservation/recreation land, as shown on the following maps.

Current Regional Land-Use Designation. Select the image to enlarge.

Proposed Regional Land-Use Designation by Maple Ridge. Select the image to enlarge.

Metro Vancouver staff noted that the proposal would increase the supply of much-needed designated industrial land and protect mature forested areas. They also noted that it would create an urban area outside the existing Urban Containment Boundary and would result in the loss of tree canopy. They also noted this is in an area with many natural hazards. Metro Vancouver staff noted that it may increase speculation in converting other rural lands in other parts of the region. Regional staff stated, “On balance, the proposed amendment is supportable, however, it does involve several trade-offs.”

As this is a significant change to the Regional Growth Strategy’s land-use, it will require a two-thirds weighted vote of the Metro Vancouver Regional District board to be approved. If the board decides to move forward with this proposal, there will be an opportunity for feedback, including from member municipalities such as Langley City, before final approval is considered.