“Secret” Free Parking in Downtown Langley

When people are looking for a place to park their vehicle when visiting Downtown Langley, the first place that most people look is along the Fraser Highway One-Way. During certain parts of the day, finding a spot on the One-Way can be tricky. While there is also on-street parking available on 56th Avenue and Douglas Crescent, there are a few parking areas that many people are unaware can be used.

The Downtown Langley Business Association provides a map of all parking that is available in the Downtown core.

Map of parking in Downtown Langley. Select image to enlarge. Source: DLBA

The first area where parking is available is at the Timms Community Centre/City Hall. You can park for up to 3 hours while visiting the Downtown core.

The other “secret” parking area is between 56th Avenue and Fraser Highway, just west of 206th Street. Many people believe that this is a paid-only parking lot or is a private parking lot. While there is some paid parking, there is also free 3-hour parking as well.

Parking lot off 56th Avenue. Select image to enlarge.

Parking lot off 56th Avenue, view from lot. Select image to enlarge.

Over the past few years, I’ve told people about these two parking options. Many people were surprised that they were available for general parking use when visiting Downtown Langley. Hopefully now that this information is shared, it will also be useful for more people. These parking options are a few minutes walk to the One-Way, and will save time, reducing the need to hunt for a parking spot.

First look at 2019 Langley City budget

Langley City staff and council have been busy over the past several months working towards a proposed 2019 financial plan and budget. An open house about the financial plan will be occurring shortly as noted below:

Date: February 21, 2019
Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Location: Finance Department Foyer (main floor), Langley City Hall

You can drop in any time during the open house to ask Langley City staff questions about the budget and provide feedback. There will also be a more formal opportunity to speak to council during a Committee of the Whole meeting:

Date: February 25, 2019
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Council Chambers, Langley City Hall

The following table shows the high-level changes between the 2018 financial plan and the proposed 2019 financial plan.

High-level overview of proposed 2019 financial plan. Select table to enlarge.

There is a proposed $3.8 million increase in expenditures for 2019, and I’ll post more details about why in future posts. The short of it is that it will result in a 6.98% increase in property tax. Because of how property taxes work in our province, not all property owners are impacted the same. You can read more about why this is the case in a previous post.

On average, single-family home owners ($886,095 average assessed value) would see an increase of $58 dollars in their property tax and user fee bill in 2019. Townhouse and apartment owners ($407,050 average assessed value) would see an average increase of $164 dollars. The proposed average increase for townhouses/apartments seems step compared to single-family as proposed in the 2019 financial plan, but as shown in the follow tables, over time this isn't the case.

Apartments/Townhouses*
Year	Average Change
2014	$0
2015	-$22
2016	-$39
2017	-$20
2018	$106
2019	$137
Total	$162.00

Single-Family*
Year	Average Change
2014	$50
2015	$92
2016	$71
2017	$105
2018	-$7
2019	$2
Total	$313.00

There were a lot of priorities that I heard during the campaign this fall from people about what they wanted addressed. I look forward to sharing over the next month or so about how the proposed 2019 budget will address those priorities.

*Does not include users fees such as water and sewer charges.

Reducing the number of single-use items that end up as waste

Single-use containers make up a significant portion of the volume of discarded materials in street bins. In fact, a City of Vancouver study found that around half of the materials in street bins were lightweight foodware. When I walk through our community, it is these single-use containers that appear to make up a significant amount of litter on the streets, in our parks, and in our protected areas.

Metro Vancouver is looking at ways to reduce the amount of single-use items that end up getting discarded. Some of the approaches available that the regional district is looking into include:

• “By request-only” regulations
• Mandatory fees
• Restrictions on sale/distribution

“By request-only” regulations means that businesses would only distribute single-use items if explicitly asked for by a customers. An example would be that coffee shops would default to “for-here” cups instead of “to-go” cups.

A mandatory fee is another option that could be applied to single-use items. We see this today with shopping bags where people have to pay 5 cents per bag. In the Metro Vancouver report, it is noted that charging a fee for single-use containers would be more effective in reducing usage than providing a discount for people who use reusable containers.

Another proposed option would be an outright prohibition on the sales and distribution of certain single-use items. This option would likely have unintended consequences including creating different types of waste, and impacting people who require single-use items.

Another option that I’ve seen trialed is a deposit on single-use containers. For example, a 5 cent deposit could be applied to single-use items. This has been highly effective in keeping beverage containers from becoming litter or landfill.

While Metro Vancouver and municipalities can advocate for solutions to reducing the number of single-use items that get discarded, the provincial government is ultimately responsible for implementing laws and regulations around discarded materials such as single-use items. To be most effective, a province-wide single-use item reduction strategy would be required.

Surrey Langley SkyTrain Project Website Up

With the switch from light rail along King George Boulevard and 104th Avenue in Surrey to SkyTrain from King George Station to Langley City, TransLink has set up a new website about the proposed Surrey Langley SkyTrain Project.

Map of proposed SkyTrain stations along Fraser Highway. Select map to enlarge. Source: City of Surrey.

The website currently has a limited amount of information, but I expect that as this project continues to move forward, more information will become available. The current information on the site includes some of the preliminary reports such as a report about the cost to build SkyTrain to Langley. There is also an FAQ page with some information.

For example, on the FAQ page it is stated that it will take “approximately 15 months until spring 2020” to develop the project plan for SkyTrain. “Following this, a procurement process would take another 15 months, and construction would take approximately four years.” If all goes to plan and funding is found, it would take about six to seven year for the SkyTrain to be operating past King George Station.

Over the next year, the full cost of the project will become known. Currently, the estimated cost is $2.9 billion.

One of the key aspects of the website appears to be signing people up to a mailing list to stay up to date about the project. If you are interested in this project, I suggest that you take a look at the site and consider signing up to the mailing list. I’ll also be following this website, and will be posting information as it becomes available.