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| Glover Road Innovation District Plan Visualization: Plaza Along Logan Avenue & 203A Street. Select the image to enlarge. |
Last Monday, Langley City Council received a presentation and report on Langley City’s “Glover Road Innovation District Plan.” This land-use plan covers the area shown in the map below and ties into the City’s FoodTech and entrepreneur-focused economic development plan.
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| Glover Road Innovation District Plan Planning Area. Select the map to enlarge. |
This plan was co-developed with Kwantlen Polytechnic University and KPU Communities Trust and is aligned with the university's long-term vision for its Langley City campus.
As a land-use plan, it focused on several main concepts:
- Establish two gateway plazas/parks that draw people from the Langley City Centre SkyTrain Station and the KPU Campus
- Establish two hub buildings at the gateways to support entrepreneurs with coworking, shared learning, research, and social congregation areas (beyond typical office space such as labs, kitchens, and workshops).
- Create green streets/boulevards that connect KPU and SkyTrain with wide sidewalks and multimodal paths.
- Add new internal streets to support redevelopment and traffic flow, and service lanes to support loading and industrial traffic
- Create a network of open spaces with plazas, parks, and greenways
- Ensure property size supports industrial and other commercial uses as well as housing
- Ensure that Glover Road and Logan Avenue have ground-level retail storefronts
The Innovation District Plan changes several properties from the regional land-use designation of mixed employment to general urban. This will require the approval of the Metro Vancouver Regional District board. Because mixed-employment land is in short supply, the City would swap general urban land to mixed-employment land in another part of the city to ensure no net loss.
Another key part of the Innovation District Plan is to ensure flexible commercial land uses to support employment, such as:
- Agri-tech/food tech industries
- Food & beverage manufacturing
- Large business and commerce consultancies
- Film post-production
- Entrepreneurial and start-up companies
- Laboratory and research-based uses
- Creative arts
- Advanced technology such as robotics
- Companies with a focus on sustainability or green energy technology
The Innovation District is divided into four precincts or planning areas. For more information, you can read the full Glover Road Innovation District Plan.
The next steps will be for Council to endorse this plan at a future Council meeting, then work to update the Official Community Plan and get Metro Vancouver Regional District approval.